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Mercury Astronaut Scott Carpenter Dies At 88

Posted by timothy on from the above-below-and-beyond dept.

schwit1 writes "M. Scott Carpenter, whose flight into space in 1962 as the second American to orbit the Earth was marred by technical glitches and ended with the nation waiting anxiously to see if he had survived a landing far from the target site, died on Thursday in Denver. He was 88 and one of the last two surviving astronauts of America's original space program, Project Mercury." NASA has a nice biography of Carpenter, too, and scottcarpenter.com has much more besides.

17 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Don't forget SEALAB! by Major+Blud · · Score: 2

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg0pMbc7Opk

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  2. Run-on sentence summary by omnichad · · Score: 4, Funny

    The run-on sentence in the summary makes it hard not to read it like he's been missing since 1962 and just now found.

    1. Re:Run-on sentence summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What you are noticing is the low levels of education and intelligence on the part of all the Slashdot editors.

      That run-on summary was plagiarized directly from the New York Times article. Blame Richard Goldstein for it's creation. Slashdot only falsely attributes it to "An anonymous reader". Which is very unprofessional, but at least they didn't create or edit it.

    2. Re:Run-on sentence summary by bigwheel · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "What you are noticing is the low levels of education and intelligence on the part of all the Slashdot editors."

      What we are noticing is the laziness of some ACs, who criticize the wording of the summary without even reading the first sentence of TFA.

      Odd as it may seem, some of us read /. for the content, and can overlook a few grammatical errors.

  3. A sad day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Your famous landing on Mercury will never be forgotten, Mr. Carpenter.

  4. Re:Who's left besides John Glenn? by Antipater · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nobody. The summary is wrong; Glenn is the last.

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    Everything is better with chainsaws.
  5. Re:Who's left besides John Glenn? by Animats · · Score: 2

    Misread the article. It's just Glenn now, the last of the Original Seven human astronauts.

  6. God speed by dlt074 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    God speed Sir. Thank you for your service.

  7. When We Left Earth by DCstewieG · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you have Netflix streaming (or want to go through some hassle), check out When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions. Absolutely fantastic documentary on the space race and the way I recently learned about his landing. For reasons outside my control, I was not alive until many years later.

    I totally get the conspiracy theories about a fake moon landing. I know we did it. But looking up at the moon, it's hard to believe it.

    1. Re:When We Left Earth by Stormwatch · · Score: 2

      It's hard to believe that men went to the moon because they don't go anymore. It's hard to believe that such knowledge, such infrastructure, such willingness to fund science, existed just a few decades ago and is now gone.

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      Circumcision is child abuse.
    2. Re:When We Left Earth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Oh man, that's naive. Funding science had nothing to do with going to the moon. It had everything to do with beating those darn commie Russkies. I can guarantee you, without the Cold War, we'd still be wondering when some one would ever go to the moon.

    3. Re:When We Left Earth by mschuyler · · Score: 2

      Sure we could, but if you use that attitude about everything, nothing would ever get done unless it passed some bureaucrat's idea of "practical and prudent."

      Besides, that's just a fucking boring attitude.

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  8. Re:Who's left besides John Glenn? by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 4, Informative

    He was 88 and one of the last two surviving astronauts of America's original space program

    The summary was correct, just poorly written. He was one of the two surviving.

  9. Re:Who's left besides John Glenn? by BancBoy · · Score: 2

    Thank you! You are truly a friend and a cosmonaut!

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    [UID-HeinzIntel]
  10. He flew into space in a beetle-sized capsule by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Basically, this guy flew into space in something the size of a VW Beetle.

    Think about that.

    No guts.

    No glory.

    He had both.

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  11. Re:Who's left besides John Glenn? by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 2

    The other men in space in the sixties were "Cosmonauts."

    oops...That should have read The other men AND WOMAN in space in the sixties were "Cosmonauts."

  12. I was born in the year he went to space. by ralphaostrander · · Score: 2

    It is a sad reminder to me how sands of time remain in my own hour glass. I am entering the stage where it seems everyone I looked up to or work/arts I enjoyed has passed.