Space Pioneer Scott Carpenter Gives Fresh View on Aurora 7 Controversy

New York, New York, USA. (SANEPR.com) November 9, 2007 -- Former astronaut Scott Carpenter gave LAUNCH Magazine a poignant look into the infancy of the American space program and his successful re-entry of the 1962 Aurora capsule that suffered numerous mechanical failures in orbit. The interview recently released in the Nov/Dec issue of LAUNCH Magazine titled “Mercury Rising” is a candid and positive appraisal by the space pioneer into the forces that shaped him to be an astronaut, what he felt during the Aurora 7 re-entry and splashdown, and his life after those momentous events.

“There is lingering controversy over Aurora 7 because it suffered from several malfunctions and overshot re-entry by more than 200 miles,” says LAUNCH Editor-in-Chief Mark Mayfield. “However, what is obvious, is that the Aurora 7 would never have made splashdown and been recovered had there not been a human pilot on board. Carpenter was the critical factor in that success, and the events that happened afterwards only paved the way for improvements—that is the nature of pioneering a new frontier.”

The Aurora 7 problems involved a faulty pitch horizon scanner and misalignment in the yaw and decelerating thrusters that forced Carpenter to operate the re-entry sequence manually. On splashdown, recognizing his recovery by sea was hours away, Carpenter climbed through the nose of the capsule rather than risk flooding via the main hatch. Throwing out a life raft, he tethered it to the vehicle and waited until he was recovered by helicopter from the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid.

“The flight stands on its own merits,” says Carpenter in his interview with LAUNCH. “It has been said that the ‘man malfunctioned.’ I don’t believe that. Since the flight, some reports I think were malignant and disloyal to the NASA team. And I regret that and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t want to be disloyal to the NASA team, too, so I have let it go, and that’s OK.”

Carpenter’s book, For Spacious Skies, goes into detail about events that affected the mission, and NASA records show the mission retrieving valuable scientific date apart from mechanical flight problems. The Aurora 7 gathered important information on “liquid behavior in a weightless state, identification of the airglow layer observed by Astronaut Glenn, and photography of terrestrial features and meteorological phenomena. An experiment which was to provide atmospheric drag and color visibility data in space through deployment of an inflatable sphere was partially successful” as well.

“I remember thinking that my response to the prospect of spaceflight, and the actuality of spaceflight, was different from most other guys,” shares Carpenter. “In this experience, I was more interested in learning about what was there to be seen than I was about the machine that got me there.”

Carpenter adds, “We’ve got some very important things coming up. One of them—maybe the most important that we can see now—is landing a man on Mars. And that episode and what surrounds it in the world of spaceflight is going to, I think, wipe the Mercury astronauts off the slate. But maybe not. Time will tell.”

LAUNCH Magazine is available nationwide in most Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores. For additional information on LAUNCH Magazine and/or to subscribe visit http://launchmagonline.com.

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