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[b]Space Cover #612: Scott Carpenter and Aurora 7[/b] Scott Carpenter, 1925-2013, was one of the seven Mercury Astronauts and on his only spaceflight, Mercury-Atlas 7 in 1962, became the second NASA Astronaut to orbit Earth. During his time with NASA, he spent 30 days on the ocean's floor in SEALAB II during the US Navy's "Man-in-the-Sea" program, thus achieving the unique distinction of being both an astronaut and aquanaut. As the capcom for John Glenn's MA-6 first US orbital spaceflight, Carpenter, wishing Glenn good luck, made his famous "Godspeed, John Glenn" comment at the moment of Glenn's Atlas liftoff. Carpenter's problem-marred MA-7 three-orbit flight aboard spacecraft Aurora 7, unfortunately is chiefly remembered for a 250 mile overshoot of the splashdown target area and for some time there was serious concern that he may have been lost. The top cover above, autographed by Carpenter, pictures him in the cachet and is canceled for his MA-7 launch. The bottom cover, with an "Orbit" descriptive cachet, is also autographed by Carpenter and canceled for his launch. This is a USS Intrepid Captain's cover, the MA-7 Prime Recovery Ship, and was obtained in 1980 from early collector E.V. Smith. It was originally from pioneer collector Donald O. Schultz and an almost identical cover is pictured in his "Project Mercury... One Step Into Space" booklet, one of three such space cover reference booklets by Schultz on Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. These excellent reference booklets would be of use and interest to any serious space cover collector, but are long-since out-of-print.
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