posted 11-06-2007 12:56 PM               

NASA Honors Mercury Astronaut Scott Carpenter

NASA will honor Mercury astronaut and retired Navy Commander Scott Carpenter with the presentation of an Ambassador of Exploration Award for his involvement in the U.S. space program. Carpenter will receive the award during a evening ceremony on Nov. 10 at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The award will remain at the museum for display.

The award is a moon rock encased in Lucite and mounted for public display as inspiration to a new generation of explorers who will help return humans to the moon and eventually travel on to Mars and beyond. The rock is part of the 842 pounds of samples collected during the six Apollo lunar expeditions from 1969 to 1972.

NASA is giving the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the first generation of explorers in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs for realizing America's vision of going to the moon. NASA also is recognizing several other key individuals who played significant roles in the early space programs.

NASA chose Carpenter as a Project Mercury astronaut in 1959. During his historic flight in 1962, he orbited the Earth three times and manually controlled his capsule's splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. Following his space flight, Carpenter continued his naval career and conducted pioneering experiments as an aquanaut.

posted 11-12-2007 11:16 PM               

Scores of visitors to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science on Saturday afternoon were unaware of Mercury program astronaut Scott Carpenter standing near a model of a spacesuit.

Carpenter was at the museum to receive the Ambassador of Exploration Award from NASA for being among the first generation of American astronauts to participate in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs.

"I'm honored," said Carpenter, who is retired and traveled from his home in Vail to receive the award.