Portrait of Scott Carpenter Courtesy of NASA

Scott Carpenter was an American astronaut who was born on May 1, 1925 in Colorado. Before he became an astronaut, he served as a Navy pilot. He logged over 3500 hours of flight time.

Carpenter became an astronaut in 1959. He was one of the first astronauts in the space program. He made only one flight into space.

In 1962, Carpenter flew solo into space aboard Aurora 7. This was the second American flight into space. He made three orbits of the Earth in 4 hours and 56 minutes. Carpenter's mission was to prove that an astronaut could work in space.

Carpenter left NASA in 1967. Since then he has worked with the Navy on Sealab and has published a novel.