Hello List,
I just returned from being out of Country for the last month or so.
As most of you know, the former astronaut / aquanaut Scott Carpenter died recently. The
information below is on him and his immediate family. He was the thirteen generation from
his ancestor William Carpenter (b. abt 1605), who died in Rehoboth, Bristol, MA.
He had a life well lived and our sympathies go out to his family.
John R. Carpenter
La Mesa, CA
http://carpentercousins.com
Descendant Report
Extended Family of Malcolm Scott “Scott” Carpenter
First Generation (parents)
1. Marion Scott Carpenter Dr.-20006 was born on 23 Jun 1901 in Denver,Denver,CO. He
died in 1973 in Palmer Lake,El Paso,CO.
NAME: Went by Scott.
12. MARION SCOTT32 CARPENTER (MARION ERNEST31, LEWIS CASS30, LUCIEN29,
DANIEL28, ELIJAH27, JOEL26, DANIEL25, BENJAMIN24, BENJAMIN23, JOSEPH22,
WILLIAM21, WILLIAM20, ROBERT19, WILLIAM18, ROBERT17, RICHARD16, WILLIAM15, JOHN
THE YOUNGER14, JOHN THE ELDER13, RICHARD12, JOHN OR JEAN11 CARPENTIER,
MAURICE10, JEAN LE9, SIGER LE8, ELGAN7 CARPENTER, AILRIC6, RALPH5, GODWIN4,
WILLIAM3, WILLIAM "THE CARPENTER" DE2 MELUN, HERVE DE1) was born Abt. 1910, and
died Aft. 1962.
Child of MARION SCOTT CARPENTER is:
i.
MALCOM SCOTT33 CARPENTER, b. 1925, Boulder, CO.
No record in the SSN? Closest matches follow.
SEE: Web page at:
http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
Name Birth Death Last
Residence Last Benefit
SSN Issued
MARION S CARPENTER 01 Jun 1905 14 Mar 1993 18702 (Wilkes Barre, Luzerne, PA) (none
specified)
188-32-5671 Pennsylvania
MARION S CARPENTER 23 Nov 1907 18 Jan 1997 (V) 92110 (San Diego, San Diego, CA) (none
specified) 545-03-2061 California
Marion married (1-MRIN:8485) Florence Kelso Noxon-89036 on 14 Feb 1925 in ,,CO. The
marriage ended in divorce.Florence was born on 9 Sep 1900 in Idaho Springs,Clear Creek,CO.
She died on 2 Nov 1962 in Boulder,Boulder,CO.
Went by "Toye."
Marion and Florence had the following children:
+ 2 M i. Malcolm Scott Carpenter-20007 was born on 1 May 1925. He died
on 10 Oct 2013.
Marion married (2-MRIN:8486) Edythe Sherr-109384 in 1944. Edythe was born about 1907 in
Nutley,,NJ.
Same person?
FamilySearch™ U.S. Social Security Death Index
Edythe CARPENTER
Birth Date: 12 Jun 1901
Death Date: Feb 1983
Social Security Number: 537-10-7268
State or Territory Where Number Was Issued: Washington
Death Residence Localities
ZIP Code: 96001
Localities: Keswick, Shasta, California
Redding, Shasta, California
Second Generation
2. Malcolm Scott Carpenter-20007 (Marion Scott) was born on 1 May 1925 in
Boulder,Boulder,CO. He died on 10 Oct 2013 in Denver, Denver, CO. He was buried cremated
in ashes buried on, Carpenter Family Ranch, Steamboat Springs, Routt, CO.
NAME: Called Scott.
MARRIAGE: His first marriage ended in divorce in 1972.
His second marriage ended n divorce in 1986.
His third marriage ended in divorce. Year not given.
NOTE: 324 years after his ancestor, William Carpenter of Rehoboth, MA, made the
dangerous journey across the Atlantic Ocean to New England, Malcolm Scott
Carpenter orbited the earth. This was 895 years after his ancestor William
"the carpenter" sailed across the English Channel to help conquer England at
the Battle of Hastings.
Aurora 7, the name of his mercury space capsule in which he rode in for a
three orbit flight, took off on May 24, 1962.
He served in the Navy during World War Two, and was a pilot during the
Korean War. He served as a test pilot in the mid 1950s. He joined NASA as
one of the first seven astronauts. In 1965 he became a aquanaut in the
Navy's Man-in-the-sea program. He retired in 1969. He died in 2013.
Notes for MALCOM SCOTT CARPENTER:
"Scott", Carpenter , a dynamic pioneer of modern space exploration, has the
unique distinction of being the only human ever to penetrate both outer & inner
space, thereby acquiring the dual title, Astronaut / Aquanaut.
He attended the University of Colorado and received a Bachelor of Science
degree in Aeronautical Engineering.
He entered the U.S. Navy in 1949 and received flight training at Pensacola
,Florida , and Corpus Christi, Texas . During the Korean War, he served in
Patrol Squadron SIX. Flying anti-submarine, ship surveillance, and aerial
mining missions in the Yellow Sea , South China Sea , and the Formosa
Straights.
He attended the Navy Test Pilot School at Patuxent River ,Maryland, in 1954 he
was assigned to Electronics Test Division of the Naval Air Test Center. In that
assignment he flew testing a variety of naval aircraft including multi and
single engine jet and propeller driven fighters, attack planes, patrol
bombers, transports, and seaplanes.
In 1957 - 1958 , he attended the Navy General Line School and Naval Air
Intelligence School and was assigned as Air Intelligence Officer to the
Aircraft Carrier USS HORNET.
He was then selected as one of the original seven U.S. Astronauts on April 9
1959. He underwent training with NASA, specializing in fields of
communication and navigation. He served as backup pilot for John Glenn during
the preparation for America's first man in space flight.
M. Scott Carpenter was the second American man in space on May 24, 1962. He
was pilot of the Aurora 7 spacecraft and flew around earth 3 times ,and as
high as 164 miles up in space. The spacecraft then landed in the Atlantic
Ocean about 1,000 miles off the coast of Florida after 4 hours and 54 minutes
of flying time.
After that he took a leave of absence from N A S A , Scott Carpenter
participated in the Navy's Man-in-the-Sea Program as a Aquanaut in SEALAB
II experiment off the coast of La Jolla, California. During this experiment,
during the summer of 1965, he spent 30 days living and working on the ocean
floor.
He was team leader for the two of the three teams of navy men and civilians
who lived and worked at a depth of 204 feet during this experiment.
He returned to N A S A after that until August 10, 1967, when he did some
more work with the Navy's SEALAB III .
He Retired in 1969 at the rank of Commander in the US Navy.
His Service awards are : The Legion of Merrit, The Distinguished Flying Cross,
Astronaut Wings, as well as other service awards.
Other Awards: The NASA Distinguished Service Award, University of Colorado
Recognition Medal, The Collier Trophy, The New York City Gold Medal of
Honor, The Elisha Kent Kane Award, The Boy Scouts of America Silver Buffalo,
The Numismatic Italian Award.
MORE: SEE WEB PAGE AT:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/40thmerc7/carpenter.htm
M. Scott Carpenter
by Tara Gray
Malcolm Scott Carpenter, Commander (USN, Ret.), was born on May 1, 1925, in Boulder,
Colorado, to
parents Dr. Marion Carpenter and Florence Kelso (Noxon) Carpenter. His parents separated
when he
was 3 years old and when his mother was hospitalized with tuberculosis, he was raised by a
family friend.
He attended primary and secondary school in Boulder, graduating from high school in 1943.
After
graduating from high school, Carpenter entered the Navy's V-5 flight training program
at the University of
Colorado. The program was designed to give potential pilots advanced academic training at
the same time
they received basic experience in aircraft.1 After a year there, he spent six months in
training at St. Mary's
Pre-flight School, Moraga, California, and four months in primary flight training at
Ottumwa, Iowa. When
the V-5 program ended at the close of World war II, Carpenter entered the University of
Colorado to major
in aeronautical engineering. He received a degree there in 1949.2
Following his graduation, Carpenter joined the Navy and received flight training from
November 1949 to
April 1951 at Pensacola, Florida and Corpus Christi, Texas. He spent three months in the
Fleet Airborne
Electronics Training School, San Diego, California, and was in a Lockheed P2V transitional
training unit at
Whidbey Island, Washington, until October 1951.3
In November 1951, he was assigned to Patrol Squadron 6 based at Barbers Point, Hawaii.
During the
Korean conflict, he was with Patrol Squadron 6 engaged in anti-submarine patrol, shipping
surveillance
and aerial mining activities in the Yellow Sea, South China Sea and the Formosa Straits.4
In 1954 he
entered the Navy Test Pilot School at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland.
After
completion of his training, he was assigned to the Electronics Test Division of the NATC.
In this
assignment Carpenter conducted flight test projects with the A3D, F11F and F9F and
assisted in other
flight test programs.5 He flew tests in a variety of Naval aircraft including multi- and
single-engine jet
aircraft and propeller-driven fighters, attack planes, patrol bombers and seaplanes.6 He
then attended
Naval General Line School at Monterey, California, for ten months in 1957 and the Naval
Air Intelligence
School, Washington, DC for an additional eight months in 1957 and 1958. In August 1958 he
was
assigned to the USS Hornet, anti-submarine aircraft carrier, as Air Intelligence Officer,
where he was
serving when he received cryptic orders to report to Washington in connection with an
unspecified special
project.7 Stopping in an airport on the way back from Washington, he picked up a Time
magazine and
learned that the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had
identified 110
candidates, all military pilots, from which to take volunteers for America's first
manned venture into space.
A few weeks later he became one of the "Original Seven" Mercury astronauts,
chosen on April 9 1959,
and was assigned to the Manned Spacecraft Center (then Space Task Group) at Langley Field,
Virginia.8
Upon reporting for duty, he was assigned a specialty area in training involving
communications and
navigational aids, because of his extensive prior experience in that field in the Navy. He
served as John
Glenn's backup pilot during pre-flight preparations for America's first manned
orbital flight, MA-6.9
When NASA grounded MA-7 pilot Donald K. Slayton (Deke) due to his heart condition,
idiopathic atrial
fibrillation (erratic heart rate), Carpenter was selected as prime pilot for that mission
with Walter M. Schirra,
Jr., as his backup pilot.10
On May 24, 1962, Carpenter lifted off onboard the spacecraft he dubbed Aurora 7 sitting
atop the Mercury-
Atlas 7 rocket. His Aurora 7 spacecraft attained a maximum altitude (apogee) of 164 miles
and an orbital
velocity of 17, 532 miles per hour.11 His primary goal during the three-orbit mission was
to determine
whether an astronaut could work in space, a major stepping stone towards a lunar landing.
The flight plan
included numerous scientific experiments, including observations of flares fired on Earth
and the
deployment of a tethered balloon. The balloon deployment was an important experiment, to
measure the
drag of the balloon in the very thin atmosphere and observe its behavior, its distance
from the capsule and
the various colors it was painted. But the balloon did not inflate properly—it got only 10
inches wide
instead of 30—and it took longer than was expected for it to reach the end of its 100-foot
nylon tether.
Carpenter was, however, able to judge its colors—the orange being the most visible, which
was a clue
NASA used for painting objects necessary for orbital rendezvous procedures. It was
impossible for
Carpenter to measure drag and the balloon proved to be extremely difficult to jettison
once the experiment
was concluded. The switch that was meant to release the balloon did not operate and Aurora
7 continued
to trail the balloon until retro-fire.12 Needless to say, the mission was less than a
total success. Carpenter
seemed distracted and behind schedule most of the flight.13 He expended too much
attitude-control fuel
when he inadvertently neglected to shut off the straight manual system when he switched
over to the fly-
by-wire system in which the pilot could control the capsule himself using fuel from the
automatic system
tanks rather than the manual system tanks. As a result he was draining fuel out of both
systems every
time he used the stick.14
At the time of retro-fire, Carpenter believed that he had brought the capsule to the
proper attitude. He
found out later that this was not correct. The small bottle-top end of the capsule was
canted 25 degrees to
the right of where it should have been, an error in yaw. He was unable to line the capsule
up on all three
axes as precisely as he should have. This meant that the capsule was not pointed in an
absolute straight
line long its path when the rockets fired, and so it did not slow down as much as it
should have. This
accounted for 175 miles of the 250-mile overshoot. But, several other things went wrong in
addition to that.
First, the retrorockets did not deliver the full thrust that was expect of them. This loss
of thrust accounted
for 60 miles of the overshoot. And then, on top of all this, the three retros fired
approximately three
seconds late. They were designed to fire automatically, but they did not. Carpenter
watched the clock
pass the correct instant, and then hit the retro-button himself a second later. Two
seconds passed before
they finally went off. At the speed of 5 miles per second, this lapse of three seconds
accounted for another
15 miles in the overshoot. In between the time when the retrorockets were fired and the
moment the
Aurora 7 began its reentry through the atmosphere, things were "pretty tight,"
as Carpenter puts it. The
fuel supply was critically low, and it was unclear as to whether or not there would be
enough fuel to keep
the capsule in the proper trim for the long glide back to Earth. If it came through at the
wrong angle and
the fuel was exhausted, Carpenter would have been unable to control the capsule during
descent and the
chances of surviving such a reentry were not good. He learned that though the manual tank
still registered
7 percent, it was really empty, and only 15 percent of the fuel supply remained in the
automatic tank for
the whole reentry. He was dangerously short.15
Carpenter maneuvered the capsule very gingerly, keeping the horizon in view through the
window, and
trying to use as little fuel as possible. He held the position steady and when he felt the
first oscillations that
told him the capsule was encountering the heavy atmosphere, he started the capsule rolling
at a rate of 10
degrees per second. This was to help keep it on its proper course on the way down and to
equalize the
heating of the spacecraft from the intense heat it would encounter during the reentry
process.16
Despite worries it was a beautiful reentry. The ride most of the way down was smooth and
Carpenter and
his Aurora 7 spacecraft were headed in at a good angle. When he glanced out the window,
Carpenter
noticed an orange ring of fiery particles stretching out like a wake behind the capsule.
These were tiny
pieces of the ablative heatshield which had melted off and were carrying some of the
intense heat away
with them. The peak Gs last longer than they were expected to on the way down and as
Carpenter spoke,
he had to inhale more frequently. The oscillations were beginning to build up and he could
feel them
swinging the capsule from side to side. These, however, were welcome because they meant
that an
aerodynamic pressure would be exerted against the capsule and help keep it on an even keel
on the way
down. The G forces tapered off at 120,000 feet, and the capsule and Carpenter were falling
approximately
600 miles per hour. The oscillations built up rapidly and carpenter used the very last of
his fuel trying to
control it, he was concerned that the capsule might topple over completely and start
coming down topside
first. If this were to happen the drogue parachute would get badly fouled up if it popped
out during the wild
swinging or possibly snap the capsule around so violently that the chute would be badly
damaged during
deployment.17
Finally, as the oscillations became worse and the capsule began to sway through a huge arc
of about 270
degrees—almost a full circle—Carpenter pressed the button to deploy the drogue chute. This
was at 26,
000 feet. The flight plan originally called for the chute to be deployed automatically at
21,000 feet, however
Carpenter felt it needed it sooner to help damp the oscillations. The six-foot drogue came
out in good
shape, and the descent stabilized. The altimeter swung towards 10,000 feet, the point at
which the main
chute was supposed to come out automatically. When it did not, Carpenter allowed 500 feet
more and
then pulled the ring. It deployed perfectly, an orange and white canopy, perfectly shaped,
stressed to its
limit and drawn tight as sheet metal as it strained to support the capsule's
weight.18
Carpenter had no way of knowing that he had overshot his landing target area by 250 miles.
He had
experienced the normal communications black-out during reentry as the ionization barrier
built up around
the capsule, and neither the Cape nor Carpenter could hear each other. Once Aurora 7 past
that phase of
reentry, Carpenter picked up a transmission from Gus Grissom, second American in space and
capsule
communicator (CAPCOM) at the Cape Canaveral Control Center. He advised Carpenter that he
had
overshot his target area and that he should expect to wait approximately an hour on the
water for recovery.
Grissom also informed him that a plane carrying paramedics was on its way to the landing
area to give
him assistance. The tracking devices had computed Carpenter's landing point as he
descended, so the
Control Center knew fairly well where he was, but it was clear that he had overshot by so
far that he was
out of range of the communications network.19
Most of NASA's communications between the capsule and the ground were made on a
line-of-sight basis.
As long as the capsule was at orbital altitude, the radio transmissions carried easily to
the next tracking
station. However, the lower the capsule became, the shorter the range of communications
became until
when Carpenter reached parachute level at 2,000 feet, there was no one close enough to
hear him. He
did pick up signals from the stronger ground transmitters, which is how he heard
Grissom's transmissions,
but his were too weak for anyone to read. He made several calls as he parachuted down, but
when no
answer was received he knew that no one could read his transmissions.20
Upon landing after 4 hours 53 minutes and 47 seconds of flight,21 the capsule became
completely
submerged and emerged listing sharply—about 60 degrees—to one side. He saw a small amount
of
water in the cockpit; the tape recorder at his feet had several splashes on it. With an
hour to wait for
recovery, Carpenter decided to get out and wait in the raft. He removed his helmet,
removed the right half
of the instrument panel to make an exit and then squeezed his way up past the instrument
panel. It was
not an easy exit but he found it better than sitting in the listing capsule for an hour or
blowing the side
hatch and losing the spacecraft altogether. He opened the hatch on the small end of the
craft, put the
camera he had been using during the mission in a safe place near the opening and dropped
the life raft
into the water. He got onto it before he realized that it was upside down. He climbed out
into the water,
turned the raft over and got back in. Then he tied the raft to the capsule so they
wouldn't drift apart and
turned on the SARAH (Search And Rescue And Homing) beacon which would assist the recovery
plane
home in on his position.22
Approximately 45 minutes after his splashdown, 1000 miles southeast of the Cape,23
recovery planes
from the USS Intrepid began approaching. He signaled them with a small hand mirror and
they began to
circle his position. Not long after that, there were planes all around his landing area.
Two paramedics
jumped into the ocean and proceeded to attach a collar to the capsule to keep it afloat
and checked on the
astronaut. Carpenter offered them food and water from his survival kit, grateful for their
presence.24 It
was another two hours before a helicopter from the USS Intrepid could pick up the
astronaut. Almost an
hour and a half later, the second American astronaut to orbit the earth stepped out onto
the deck of the
Intrepid to be taken back to Grand Turk Island for debriefing.25 Following his space
flight and subsequent
debriefing, Carpenter returned to Patrick Air Force Base at Cocoa Beach, Florida, and was
faced with a
round of honor-receiving ceremonies.26
It is believed that because of his performance, Carpenter was told that he would never fly
another NASA
mission.27 In 1963, he monitored the design and development of the lunar module for the
Apollo project.
He also served temporarily as Executive Assistant to the Director of the Manned
Spaceflight Center in
Houston. In the spring of 1965, on leave from NASA, he participated as an aquanaut in the
U.S. Navy's
SEALAB II project. In this capacity, he acted as Training Officer for the crew and was
Officer-in-Charge of
the submerged diving teams during the operation.28 He spent 30 days living and working in
SEALAB II
205 feet below the surface on the ocean floor off the coast of La Jolla, California. At
one point he spoke by
phone to the crew of Gemini 5, original Mercury astronaut L. Gordon Cooper and "New
Nine" astronaut
Charles L. "Pete" Conrad, orbiting overhead. Carpenter led two of three teams of
Navy men and civilians
during the 45-day experiment.29 For his participation in the experiment, he was awarded
the Navy's
Legion of Merit award.30
NASA public relations credited Carpenter with being the first person to explore both of
humanity's great
remaining frontiers, the ocean and President Kennedy's "New Ocean": space.
After the SEALAB II
experiment, Carpenter returned to the space program and was responsible for liaison with
the Navy for
underwater zero-gravity training (neutral buoyancy).31 On July 16, 1964, in Hamilton,
Bermuda,
Carpenter lost control of the motorcycle he was driving and broke his lower left arm. The
compound
fracture eliminated Carpenter from participation in a Navy test in which he would have
been submerged in
a diving chamber with four Navy divers at a depth of 192 feet.32 This accident also
removed him from
flight status and he resigned from NASA on August 10, 1967.33
He was then assigned to the Navy's Deep Submergence Systems Project as assistant for
aquanaut
operations during the SEALAB III experiment. The project was responsible for developing
deep-ocean
search, rescue, salvage and ocean engineering capabilities, and directed the Navy's
Saturation Diving
Program.34
Carpenter retired from the Navy on July 1, 1969. Since then he has been an engineering
consultant, a
wasp breeder, and a novelist. His first novel, entitled The Steel Albatross, is a
techno-thriller in the same
vein as Tom Clancy, about a Soviet plot to place a doomsday device on the ocean floor. He
still makes his
home in Colorado, his boyhood home, and is still friends with the remaining Mercury
astronauts. They
occasionally get together for skiing trips or meetings in connection with their
Florida-based Mercury 7
Foundation for scholarships in space education.35
Carpenter is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds. He has brown hair and green
eyes. He was
married to the former Rene Louise Price of Clinton, Iowa, on September 9, 1948; they were
later divorced.
He married the former Maria Roach, daughter of film producer Hal Roach, in 1972, and
married the former
Barbara Curtin in 1988. They have since divorced. He has four children from his first
marriage: Marc Scott,
born November 29, 1949; Kristen Elaine, born June 26, 1955; Candace Noxon, born October 8,
1956;
and Robyn Jay, born March 4, 1962. He also has two children from his second marriage:
Matthew Scott
and Nicholas Andre, and one child from his third marriage: Zachary Scott. 36
Carpenter is an honorary fellow in the Institute of Environmental Sciences, a member of
the Association of
Space Explorers–USA, and a member of Delta Tau Delta. He has been awarded the Legion of
Merit,
Distinguished Flying Cross, NASA Distinguished Service Medal, Navy Astronaut Wings,
University of
Colorado Recognition Medal, National Aeronautic Association's Collier Trophy, New York
City Gold Medal
of Honor, Elisha Kent Kane Medal, Boy Scouts of America Silver Buffalo, and Numismatica
Italiana Award.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Hawthorne, Douglas B. Men and Women of Space (San Diego, California: Univelt
Incorporated, 1992),
pp. 119–120.
2. "Malcolm Scott Carpenter." National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(Washington, DC, May
1961). Hereafter referred to as NASA Biography.
3. Ibid.
4. "M. Scott Carpenter." Manned Spacecraft Center Biographical Data. Houston,
Texas, April 1967, p. 1.
Hereafter referred to as MSC Biography.
5. NASA Biography.
6. Hawthorne, p. 120.
7. Ibid.
8. MSC Biography, p. 2.
9. Ibid.
10. "Carpenter Replaces Slayton as MA-7 Pilot." NASA Press Release. Washington,
DC, March 15, 1962.
11. MSC Biography, p. 2.
12. Carpenter, M. Scott, et al. We Seven (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962), p. 359.
13. Hawthorne, p. 121.
14. Carpenter, et al., pp. 362–363.
15. Ibid., pp. 363–364.
16. Ibid., p. 364.
17. Ibid., pp. 364–365.
18. Ibid., p. 365.
19. Ibid., pp. 365–366.
20. Ibid., p. 366.
21. MSC Biography, p. 2.
22. Carpenter, et al., pp. 366–367.
23. MSC Biography, p. 2.
24. Carpenter, et al., p. 368.
25. "Three More Orbits Added to Record." Space News Roundup 30 (May 1962): 1,
3.
26. "Astronaut M. Scott Carpenter, Aurora 7, May 24, 1962." National Aeronautics
and Space
Administration Manned Spacecraft Center. Houston, Texas, p. 1.
27. Hawthorne, p. 121.
28. MSC Biography, p. 2.
29. Hawthorne, p. 121.
30. MSC Biography, p. 2.
31. Hawthorne, p. 121.
32. "Motor Bike Spill Fractures Arm of Astronaut." The Baltimore Sun, July 17,
1964.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Hawthorne, p. 120 and e-mail from Barbara Carpenter, July 16, 2001.
BOOK:
Scott Carpenter's memoirs "For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a
Mercury Astronaut," by Scott Carpenter and Kris Stoever, Harcourt, 370
pages, $26.
By RAY LOCKER Associated Press
The disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia on Feb. 1 again showed the
world the dangers of space flight, something the seven members of the
Mercury astronaut corps understood every day. As America's fourth man in
space aboard Aurora 7, Scott Carpenter was one of those seven, an experience
he re-counts in "For Spacious Skies," a sad, affecting and sometimes odd
memoir. While undeniably brave and accomplished, today's astronauts bear
only superficial resemblance to the Mercury 7, those test pilots turned folk
, heroes who had the right stuff not just for their flying skill but their
ability to thrive un- der public scrutiny. Carpenter excelled on all levels.
In him, Carpenter and co-author Kris Stoever write, the space program "had
found an elite athlete, a genetic fluke, blessed with a strong heart and
cardiorespiratory capacity, ideal combinations of fast-twitch and
slow-twitch muscle fiber, plus hand-eye co-ordination, strength and speed."
But his physical gifts - masked deep undercurrents of sadness and
recklessness. The child of a broken home, Carpenter lived with his maternal
grandparents in Colorado after his mother came down with tuberculosis and
his father es- sentially abandoned them. Much of the early book in- cludes
passages from Carpenter's affection-seeking letters to his father in New
York. That longing for paternal approval, Carpenter and Stoever write, led
to Carpenter's "many renegade years," which culminated "episodically,
with
fare personal achievement and self-destruction of equal virtuosity: six cars
totaled. Four marriages. Seven children. From all of them, somehow, boy and
man always managed to walk away." Carpenter rarely walked away unscathed,
however. A memoir featuring an achievement of anyone's lifetime - a place in
the Mercury program - also includes failure and disappointment. Aurora 7 was
Carpenter's only space flight; he was the only Mercury astronaut not to go
into space after the program ended. The book trails off after Aurora 7,
devoting only a dozen or so pages to Carpenter's role in the Navy's
underwater Sealab program during the 1960s. After that, there's little,
except for a brief passage about how a series of in- juries kept him from
diving and flying high-performance jets. It leaves the reader won- dering
what else happened to him. "For Spacious Skies" is a rare memoir because it
reads more like a standard biogra- phy, right down to its use of
third-person narration. Also, Stoever is Carpenter's daughter, but that
connection becomes apparent only near the end of the book.
Scott Carpenter web page at:
http://www.scottcarpenter.com/faq.html
GRAVE:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=118479132
Scott Carpenter
Birth: May 1, 1925_Boulder_Boulder County_Colorado, USA Death: Oct. 10, 2013_Denver_Denver
County_Colorado, USA _National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Astronaut. He
is
remembered as the second American to orbit the Earth and the fourth American in space,
following
astronauts Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and John Glenn. Born Malcolm Scott Carpenter in
Boulder,
Colorado, he moved with his parents shortly after his birth to New York City, New York,
where his father
had been awarded a postdoctoral chemist research post at Columbia University. At the age
of 2, he
returned to Boulder with his mother, who was ill with tuberculosis, and was raised by his
maternal
grandparents. After graduating from Boulder High School in 1943, he entered the V-12 Navy
College
Training Program as an aviation cadet and spent the remainder of the war in training
without seeing any
combat action. He was released from active duty at the end of World War II and returned to
Boulder to
study aeronautical engineering at the University of Boulder, but did not graduate at that
time (he
subsequently received his Bachelor of Science Degree after his Mercury space flight). He
was then
recruited by Navy's Direct Procurement Program on the eve of the Korean War, and
reported to Naval Air
Station Pensacola, Florida in the fall of 1949 for pre-flight and primary flight training,
earning his aviator
wings on April 1951, in Corpus Christi, Texas. On his first deployed assignment, he flew
Lockheed P2V
Neptune aircraft on reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare missions during the Korean
War. On his
second deployment to Adak, Alaska, he flew surveillance missions along the Soviet and
Chinese coasts
and for his third deployment, he was based with his squadron in the Pacific island of
Guam. In 1954 he
was appointed to the US Naval Test Pilot School, class 13, at Naval Air Station Patuxent
River, Maryland,
serving until 1957 as a test pilot in the Electronics Test Division. He was then assigned
to the Navy Line
School in Monterey, California until 1958, when he became the Air Intelligence Officer for
the USS Hornet.
In 1959 he was selected as one of the seven astronauts for NASA's Project Mercury
program, serving as
backup pilot for John Glenn, who flew the first U.S. orbital mission aboard Friendship 7
in February 1962.
When astronaut Deke Slayton was withdrawn on medical grounds from Project Mercury's
second manned
orbital flight (to be titled Delta 7),he was assigned to replace him. On May 24, 1962 he
flew into space,
atop the Mercury-Atlas 7 rocket for a three-orbit science mission that lasted nearly five
hours, attaining a
maximum altitude of 164 miles and an orbital velocity of 17,532 miles per hour. He was the
first American
astronaut to eat solid food in space. After taking a leave of absence from the astronaut
corps in the fall of
1963 to train for and participate in the Navy's SEALAB program, he sustained a
medically grounding injury
to his left arm in a motorbike accident. He failed to regain mobility in his arm after two
surgeries (in 1964
and 1967), and he was ruled ineligible for spaceflight. In 1965 he spent 28 days living on
the ocean floor
off the coast of California for SEALAB II, followed with a NASA position as the Executive
Assistant to the
Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center. In 1967 he returned to the Navy's Deep
Submergence
Systems Project based in Bethesda, Maryland, as a Director of Aquanaut Operations for
SEALAB III,
where he helped to develop underwater training to help astronauts with future spacewalks.
He resigned
from NASA in August 1967 and retired from the US Navy two years later with 25 years of
active service
and the rank of commander. Among his military honors and awards include the Navy Legion of
Merit, the
Distinguished Flying Cross, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. After his
retirement, he founded
Sea Sciences, Inc., a corporation for developing programs for utilizing ocean resources
and improving
environmental health. Other awards he received include the University of Colorado
Recognition Medal,
the Collier Trophy, the New York City Gold Medal of Honor, the Elisha Kent Kane Medal, the
Ustica Gold
Trident, The Boy Scouts of America Silver Buffalo Award, and the 1995 Academy of
Underwater Arts and
Sciences New Orleans Grand Isle Award for Distinguished Service. He was also awarded seven
honorary
degrees. He wrote two underwater techno-thriller novels, "The Steel Albatross"
(1990) and a sequel "
Deep Flight" (1994). In 2003 his memoir, "For Spacious Skies," which he
co-authored with his daughter
Kristen Stoever, was published. The Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station was placed on the
ocean floor
in 1997 and 1998 and was named in honor of his SEALAB work in the 1960s. He died of
complications
from a stroke at the age of 88. Upon his death, John Glenn became the last living member
of the Mercury
Seven.
(bio by: William Bjornstad) _
Burial:_Carpenter Family Ranch _
Steamboat Springs_
Routt
County_
Colorado, USA_
Plot: Ashes buried on family private property _
Maintained by: Find A Grave_
Originally Created by: Jwm3rd _
Record added: Oct 10, 2013 _
Find A Grave Memorial# 118479132
Malcolm married (1-MRIN:8487) Rene Louise Price-89037 on 9 Sep 1948. The marriage ended
in divorce.Rene was born on 12 Apr 1928 in Clinton,Clinton,IA.
www.mscottcarpenter.com
Rene Louise Price (b. April 12, 1928, Clinton, Iowa) and Scott were married on September
12, 1948. She
remarried in 1977 and lives in Longmont, Colo. (For more on Rene, see For Spacious Skies:
The
Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronaut).
Malcolm and Rene had the following children:
3 M i. Marc Scott Carpenter-20008 was born on 29 Nov 1949 in
Boulder,Boulder,CO.
4 M ii. Timothy Kit "Timmy" Carpenter-91667 was born on
23 Dec 1950 in Pensacola,,FL. He died on 29 Jun 1951 in San Diego,San Diego,CA.
DEATH: He died at six months of age.
SEE: page 106 -107, " For Spacious Skies " Rene pined her husbands wings of
gold
on April 19, 1951; ......... They were soon at Naval Air Station San Diego, where Scott
would get additional electronics training and where their six-month-old, Timmy, died in
his sleep. Rene found him early in the morning.
5 F iii. Kristen Elaine Carpenter-20010 was born on 26 Jun 1955 in
Lexington Park,St. Mary's,MD.
NAME: Kris
BOOK: Scott Carpenter's memoirs "For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a
Mercury Astronaut," by Scott Carpenter and Kris Stoever, Harcourt, 370 pages, $26.
Kris Stoever is Carpenter's daughter, but that connection becomes apparent only near
the end of the book.
Kristen married (MRIN:8491) Thomas William Stoever Jr.-91666 . Thomas was born on 4 Mar
1961 in Santa Monica,Los Angeles,CA.
6 F iv. Candace Noxon Carpenter-20011 was born on 8 Oct 1956 in
Lexington Park,St. Mary's,MD.
7 F v. Robyn Jay Carpenter-20009 was born on 4 Mar 1962 in
Honolulu,Honolulu,HI.
Malcolm married (2-MRIN:8488) Maria Mae Roach-51233 daughter of Hal Roach-89038
(MRIN:20121) on 7 Oct 1972. The marriage ended in divorce.Maria was born on 14 Apr 1947 in
Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA.
www.mscottcarpenter.com
Maria Mae Roach (b. Apr. 14, 1947, Los Angeles, Calif.) and Scott were married on October
7, 1972 in
Beverly Hills, Calif. Maria is the daughter of legendary film pioneer and director Hal
Roach.
Malcolm and Maria had the following children:
8 M vi. Matthew Scott Carpenter-89040 was born on 8 Jan 1978 in Los
Angeles,Los Angeles,CA.
NAME: Goes by Matt.
9 F vii. Nicholas Andre Carpenter-89041 was born on 1 Nov 1979 in
Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA.
NAME: Goes by Nick.
Malcolm married (3-MRIN:8489) Barbara Curtin-89039 in Jul 1987. The marriage ended in
divorce.Barbara was born on 22 Nov 1953.
They had the following children:
10 M viii. Zachary Scott Carpenter-89042 was born on 20 Nov 1989 in
Palmer Lake,El Paso,CO.
NAME: Goes by Zack.
Malcolm married (4-MRIN:8490) Patricia Kay Snyder-108522 on 21 Nov 1998. Patricia was
born on 12 Sep 1938 in Isabella,Garden Twp.,Delta,MI.
www.mscottcarpenter.com
Patricia Kay Barrette was born in Isabella, on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, on Sept. 12,
1938. She later
moved with her family to Grosse Pointe, Mich., where she was active in the community and
raised a family.
The grandmother of five, Patty has three children, Ralph Fletcher, Ashley (Fletcher)
Yankowski and
Jeffrey Fletcher (from a previous marriage).
NAME: Patricia Kay (nee Barrette nee Fletcher) Snyder. Goes by Patty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella%2C_Michigan
Garden Township, Michigan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Garden Township is a township in Delta County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the
2000 census, the
township had a total population of 817.
The Village of Garden is located within the township.
Garden Corners is an unincorporated community in the township at the northeast of the Big
Bay de Noc at
45°53'25?N, 86°32'12?W. It is on U.S. Highway 2 about 16 miles west of Manistique.
It is also the
northern terminus of M-183 which connect with Garden, nine miles to the south and with
Fayette, about 17
miles to the south.
Isabella is an unincorporated community about four miles west of Garden Corners on US 2 at
45°53'51?N,
86°36'21?W.
Geography
The township occupies the northern portion of the Garden Peninsula, with the Big Bay de
Noc, which
opens onto the Bay of Green Bay, on the west and Lake Michigan on the east. The township
also extends
about 16 miles northward along the entire eastern boundary between Delta County and
Schoolcraft
County to the northern boundary of Delta with Schoolcraft.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 477.6 kmø
(184.4 miø).
414.2 kmø (159.9 miø) of it is land and 63.4 kmø (24.5 miø) of it is water. The total area
is 13.27% water.