Sadly, Scott Carpenter, one of the original seven American astronauts, just passed away. The first spaceman to eat solid food in flight and the one who uttered the words, “Godspeed, John Glenn,” Carpenter flew his last mission in 1962, piloting the Mercury-Atlas 7, which nearly killed him. Troubles during orbit intensified during re-entry causing his rocket to significantly overshoot its water landing, leaving him adrift and alone for nearly an hour. His first wife, Rene–Carpenter married four times–penned an article, “55 Minutes That Lasted Forever,” for the June 1, 1962 Life magazine about the close call. The opening:
“As Scott passed Hawaii on his third orbit, all of us in the beach house at Cape Canaveral gathered on the footstools and bamboo chairs in front of the television set. The flight had been a long one, and after what had been such a perfect start, so many things seemed to be giving Scott trouble. I wanted him down.
When he started re-entry, the boys pretended they were retro-rockets firing and thumped each other’s chairs with their tennis shoes. I scolded them. My own tension was growing.
Scott was in touch with Cape Canaveral briefly, but then we were in that suffocating quiet of the ionization period where no radio contact was possible. The seconds ticked off as we waited for the report that he had broken through. The report did not come. The time grew too long, and we all knew it. The children were no longer oblivious to the drama. The little girls, their sensitive feelers out, knew that the boys no longer wanted to fool. Candy climbed up on my lap, and Kris said, ‘Well, he’s almost on the carrier now.’ Scotty tried for wisecracks, which fell thud. Jay’s head sank low on his chest–so much like his dad, with his quiet exterior and his imagination running riot inside.
We heard Scott would overshoot his planned landing point by 200 miles, but there was still no word from him. I was maddened by the gloomy speculation coming, as the announcer said, ‘from an unofficial source.’ that the radar had tracked nothing/ The assumption was that there was nothing to track.
It would be a long wait–but we had all been waiting a long time.”
