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For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey Of A Mercury Astronaut
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 629.450092
EAN: 9780451211057
ISBN: 0451211057
Label: NAL Trade
Manufacturer: NAL Trade
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: January 06, 2004
Publisher: NAL Trade
Release Date: January 06, 2004
Studio: NAL Trade
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Editorial Review:
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 McCulley
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."
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Not Sitting on the Beach...
Scott Carpenter and his daughter were "inspired" to write this book in response to Gene Kranz's characterizations of Carpenter in "Failure is Not An Option." Ordinarily, a "defensive" book is not especially interesting. Kranz accused Carpenter of having too laid-back a personality, and that he would be found laying on a beach, strumming a guitar and contemplating. Kranz biggest beef was a blow to Kranz's pride, when Carpenter essentially told the media that for a period of time on his Mercury ... Read More
Rating: - Not just about Mercury...
M. Scott Carpenter and his daughter Kris have certainly written a fascinating biography that is unlike most others I have read about astronauts. For starters, it is written mostly in the third person. I asked Scott about that recently and he said that was a decision by Kris to do that. I must say, it was risky to go that route with an autobiography. But from the standpoint of what the story was trying to tell, I think it was worth the risk since this is more then just a biography about Scott as it ... Read More
Rating: - Good Read
If your reading the other Mercury books, add this one to the list.
Getting the book basically for the shipping is a great deal.
Rating:  - From Sky High to Rock Bottom with NASA.
Life at NASA is not always rosey. NASA experimented with different programs and each mission helpted to determine their research progress in the main mission to be the first to do things in Space. NASA uses young, ambitious people as guinea pigs. When my son Jeff had his first NASA job, he told me he was a glorified computer operator. They used his hard-earned experience at the University of Chicago to catagorize the information coming to base at Boulder, Colorado, from the flawed Hubble telescope. ... Read More
Rating: - Too Concerned with Kraft's Book
Carpenter spends a large portion of this book refuting what Chris Kraft wrote in his book, "Flight", too large in my opinion. I did find his story interesting and I think he could of told his story without making specific rebuttals to Kraft. On the positive side, this book is a nice addition to my NASA library since it focuses so much on the Mercury missions, compared to the many books written on the Apollo program.
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