GODSPEED, SCOTT CARPENTER
One of the last of of the trailblazing MERCURY SEVEN Astronauts, SCOTT CARPENTER, has departed Earth one last time at 88.
Carpenter’s wife Patty Barrett, said Scotty died of complications from a stroke in a Denver hospice.
As both an astronaut and aquanaut who lived underwater for the U.S. Navy, Carpenter was the first man to explore both the depths of the ocean and the heights of space.
Carpenter gave the famous “Right Stuff” send-off -- "Godspeed, John Glenn" -- when Glenn became the first American in orbit in February 1962.
Three months later, Carpenter joined Glenn in the history books, orbiting Earth three times in the self-named Aurora 7.
Carpenter lost contact with NASA during the splashdown which was off target but was recovered safely floating happily in his life raft 288 miles away.
Years later, Carpenter revealed why he joined the Mercury program, "One of them, quite frankly, is that it is a chance for immortality.
“Most men never have a chance for immortality."
And then there was one... John Glenn.