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Goodbye, my friend, my icon, Scott Carpenter..



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 10th 13, 10:53 PM posted to sci.space.history
Richard Glueck
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Default Goodbye, my friend, my icon, Scott Carpenter..

I always admired Scott Carpenter's resilience after his heroic space flight.. In 1962, I listened to his flight live, on a tinny transistor AM radio, laying on back in a garden chair, drinking Carnation Instant Breakfast. The world stopped for space launches in those days. To my delight, after reviewing his book, co-authored with his lovely daughter Kris, Jim Oberg put me contact with her. We became steady correspondents until about two years ago. Scott autographed a few items for me, and while I never spoke to him personally, he answered questions directly for me through his daughter.

Astronaut Carpenter overshot his landing point by getting behind in the timeline planned for his flight. The plain fact white-washed over was his capsule had a stuck thruster he was fighting for control, which he did successfully.
Scott was maligned viciously by Chris Kraft, in his book, and "another Carpenter flight" became the catch phrase for Kraft loyalists during those early years.

Carpenter's home life was also churned in turmoil. His lovely wife Rene was left with a family of adolescents, who with serious psychological challenges. Carpenter re-married, then divorced again and re-married once more. But Rene turned out to be one of the best friends Scott had, when her personal notes on the Mercury years helped document the book version of "The Right Stuff" (not the horrendous film adaptation).

Somehow, I couldn't be disappointed with him. He was, after all, a Mercury Astronaut, and some of his peers had far greater transgressions in life that were simply glossed over.

Scott Carpenter remained dapper looking, trim, well dressed, and "hip", throughout his life, and certainly into old age.

I will miss him, as he now joins his Mercury bretheren. "God speed, Scott Carpenter".
  #2  
Old October 12th 13, 04:21 AM posted to sci.space.history
OM[_19_]
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Default Goodbye, my friend, my icon, Scott Carpenter..

On Thursday, October 10, 2013 4:53:37 PM UTC-5, Richard Glueck wrote:
Scott was maligned viciously by Chris Kraft, in his book, and "another Carpenter flight" became the catch phrase for Kraft loyalists during those early years.


....Old SSH vets will recall that I corresponded with Kris a bit regarding my theory as to what happened to Scott during his flight. His disorientation sounded a *LOT* like that experienced by divers and pilots who were suffering from mild levels of O2 deprivation - not enough to cause one to pass out, but enough to cause varying levels of conbefuddlement just shy of being drunk. I'd heard tapes of Navy divers and Air Farce test pilots who demonstrated almost identical levels of distraction when their O2 levels went below a certain level but their CO2 levels stayed well within the safe zone. Kris had contacted her pop about this, but apparently Scott had looked into this theory not long after his return from his Aurora 7 mission. Ground telemetry showed no signs of lowered O2 levels, and there were no signs of any malfunctioning equipment onboard the spacecraft during the post-flight analysis. His belief by then had shifted towards possible overheating effects caused by the cabin temps rising as high as 104F, and the suit loop not compensating properly, at times never getting below 101-102F. According to Kris, Scott had begun to postulate that had he simply increased his intake of water - something the Mercury Astronauts were not that keen on doing due to the lack of a "relief tube" and the problems with the "motorman's friend" - his coherence would have not diminished and his mission would have turned out a bit more on the positive side. Granted, there were still the RCS issues that Kraft is still hesitant to admit were not Scott's fault, but at the very least Kraft would have had a far more difficult time trying to scapegoat him over the years.

RIP, Scott. You were still one of my #1 heroes to the very end. Go Navy!

OM

 




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