For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronaut Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronaut Book

M. Scott Carpenter was America's fourth man in space, his 1962 three-orbit mission in a tiny Mercury capsule closely paralleling that of John Glenn's previous mission. But that's where the similarities end: a malfunctioning navigational system caused Carpenter to splash down, dangerously, some 250 miles off-target, and Glenn's fame would somehow forever eclipse that of all seven of his fellow original astronauts combined. This memoir, penned in conjunction with Carpenter's daughter Kris, oddly distances itself from Carpenter's life through use of a third-person narrative (only the astronaut's calm account of his perilous mission is delivered directly in his voice), a device that ultimately echoes the more personal distances Carpenter endured in his own fateful, if troubled, journey toward the stars. While Carpenter may have been able to trace his lineage back to the Plymouth colony of the 1630s, his immediate family seemed shattered. His research-chemist father was successful but absent, his mother often a bedridden invalid. Carpenter's journey to the Mercury program after a Rocky Mountain childhood and a stint on lumbering Naval patrol planes is one of the more unlikely of the original astronaut class, and he offers up his own perspectives on what has become a compelling body of American folklore (thanks largely to Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff and the memoirs of other participants). While the account of NASA's infancy seems quaint, its officialdom often comes off as nothing short of cutthroat, perhaps inspiring the pioneering spaceman to the book's final adventures exploring a distinctly different frontier--the bottom of the ocean--as part of the Navy's endurance-minded SeaLab program. --Jerry McCulleyRead More

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  • Product Description

    In 1962, an anxious nation watched on live TV as astronaut Scott Carpenter's Aurora 7 capsule malfunctioned during reentry. Only his courage and skill saved the day. But instead of praise for having the "Right Stuff," Carpenter drew criticism for "botching" an otherwise flawless mission and overshooting his landing zone. Although a mechanical glitch was responsible, Carpenter-the "free spirit" of the Mercury Seven-never flew into space again. But his days as a daring, pioneering explorer were far from over...

    Carpenter overcame tremendous adversity to go from small-town boy to Navy test pilot, Mercury astronaut, and undersea explorer. Now, writing with his daughter, he breaks his 40-year silence to set the record straight about the Aurora 7 mission, the often ruthless early years at NASA-and the rugged upbringing that produced the man John Glenn has called "one of America's modern heroes."

  • 0451211057
  • 9780451211057
  • M. Scott Carpenter, Kris Stoever
  • 1 January 2004
  • New American Library
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 384
  • Reprint
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