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Source: Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.儲存Oct. 10--Legendary Boulder-born astronaut Scott Carpenter -- who in 1962 became the second American to orbit the Earth and the first person to explore both the heights of space and depths of the ocean -- died Thursday in Denver with his wife at his side. He was 88.Along with John Glenn, who flew three months before him, Carpenter was one of the last two survivors of the original Mercury 7 astronauts for the fledgling U.S. space program. He lived in Vail until a few weeks ago, when he suffered a stroke that put him in Swedish Medical Center and, eventually, The Denver Hospice at Lowry."On Sunday, we watched the Broncos-Dallas game and he was very verbal," his daughter Candy Carpenter said Thursday.But he took a turn for the worse the next day and never recovered.Candy Carpenter, 57, said her father died peacefully at 5:30 a.m. of complications from the stroke with his wife, Patty Barrett, by his side."He wanted to be the best pilot, he wanted to be the best navigator, he wanted to be the best father, he wanted to be the best diver," Candy Carpenter said. "He wanted to be the best at everything."She said he also came from an era when astronauts regularly put their lives on the line testing out new equipment and new technologies in situations and conditions humans had never before faced."That was one of the things he was most proud of was to be able to go to space and prove or disprove all those fears," she said. "He loved machines."Gordon Page, founder of the Spirit of Flight Center in Erie, credits Carpenter with setting the stage for the hundreds of astronauts who would come after him. He was part of a select group of early space explorers who likely didn't fully recognize just how much their bravery and determination would push forward an industry that now plays an instrumental role in both Boulder County and Colorado as a whole, Page said."I see him as the starting point -- look at all the jobs and technological advances that just these few guys played a role in producing," Page said. "It was a unique point in American history that allowed people to break records and go further than ever before without a lot of red tape and budget issues."'Willingly give my life'Carpenter, who was born in Boulder on May 1, 1925, as Malcolm Scott Carpenter (he hated his first name and didn't use it), began to look skyward for inspiration at a very young age."The big influence for my father as a 5-year-old was seeing Lowry Air Force Base being built and Stapleton Airport being built," daughter Kris Stoever said Thursday. "It was the first time he saw an airplane overhead."His maternal grandparents raisedCarpenter after his mother became ill with tuberculosis and his parents split up. Stoever said her father loved climbing the Flatirons and pastured a horse, named Lady Luck, at the base of Flagstaff Mountain."Boulder formed my father," she said.And he was recognized by the city. A park at 30th Street and Arapahoe Avenue was after the astronaut, while Boulder's Aurora 7 Elementary took its name from Carpenter's Mercury capsule. Scott Carpenter Park was rededicated last year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his space flight.Carpenter graduated from Boulder High in 1943 and went on to the University of Colorado, but only attended one semester before joining the Navy's V-12a training program, designed to help train pilots during World War II.He returned to CU to study aeronautical engineering, but, in 1949, rejoined the Navy and continued his pilot training -- one course short of finishing his bachelor's degree.On April 9, 1959, after a decade in the Navy, the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that Carpenter was one of seven chosen to be part of its first astronaut group, which came to be known as the Mercury 7.The launch into space on the morning of May 24, 1962, was nerve-racking for the Navy pilot."You're looking out at a totally black sky, seeing an altimeter reading of 90,000 feet and realize you are going straight up. And the thought crossed my mind: 'What am I doing?'" Carpentersaid 49 years later in a joint lecture with Glenn at the Smithsonian Institution.For Carpenter, the momentary fear was worth it, he said in 2011: "The view of Mother Earth and the weightlessness is an addictive combination of senses."For the veteran Navy officer, flying in space or diving to the ocean floor was more than a calling. In 1959, soon after being chosen one of NASA's pioneering seven astronauts, Carpenter wrote about his hopes, concluding: "This is something I would willingly give my life for."Three months later, Carpenter was launched into space from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and completed three orbits around Earth in his space capsule, the Aurora 7, which he named after the celestial event. It was just a coincidence, Carpenter said, that he grew up on the corner of Aurora Avenue and Seventh Street in Boulder.His four hours, 39 minutes and 32 seconds of weightlessness were "the nicest thing that ever happened to me," Carpenter told a NASA historian. "The zero-g sensation and the visual sensation of spaceflight are transcending experiences and I wish everybody could have them."His trip led to many discoveries about spacecraft navigation and space itself, such as that space offers almost no resistance, which he found out by trailing a balloon. Carpenter said astronauts in the Mercury program found most of their motivation from the space race with the Russians. When he completed his orbit of the Earth, he said he thought: "Hooray, we're tied with the Soviets," who had completed two manned orbits at that time.'We may have... lost an astronaut'But things started to go wrong on re-entry. He was low on fuel and a key instrument that tells the pilot which way the capsule is pointing malfunctioned, forcing Carpenter to manually take over control of the landing. NASA's Mission Control then announced that he would overshoot his landing zone by more than 200 miles and, worse, they had lost contact with him.Talking to a suddenly solemn nation, CBS newsman Walter Cronkite told the audience: "We may have ... lost an astronaut."At a time when astronauts achieved fame on par with rock stars, folks across the country sat glued to their TV smini storagereens, anxiously awaiting the outcome of Carpenter's mission. Dave Klaus, a professor in aerospace engineering sciences at CU, said the routine nature of space travel today and the assurances people take from that simply didn't exist then."There was a lot of unknowns and a lot of uncertainty at that time," Klaus said.But Carpenter survived the landing that day.Always cool under pressure -- his heart rate never went above 105 during the flight -- he oriented himself by simply peering out the space capsule's window. The Navy found him in the Caribbean, floating in his life raft with his feet propped up. He offered up some of his space rations.Carpenter's perceived nonchalance didn't sit well some with NASA officials, particularly flight director Chris Kraft. The two feuded about it from then on.Kraft accused Carpenter of being distracted and behind schedule, as well as making poor decisions. He blamed Carpenter for the low fuel.On his website, Carpenter acknowledged that he didn't shut off a switch at the right time, doubling fuel loss. Still, in his 2003 memoir, he wrote: "I think the data shows that the machine failed."From deep space to deep seasCarpenter never did go back in space, but his explorations continued. In 1965, he spent 30 days under the ocean off the coast of California as part of the Navy's SeaLab II program. Once again the motivation was both fear and curiosity."I wanted, No. 1, to learn about it (the ocean), but No. 2, I wanted to get rid of what was an unreasoned fear of the deep water," Carpenter told the NASA historian.Inspired by Jacques Cousteau, Carpenter worked with the Navy to bring some of NASA's training and technology to the sea floor. A broken arm kept him out of the first SeaLab, but he made the second in 1965. The 57-by-12-foot habitat was lowered to a depth of 205 feet off San Diego. A bottlenose dolphin named Tuffy ferried supplies from the surface to the aquanauts below."SeaLab was an apartment, but it was very crowded. Ten men lived inside. We worked very hard. We slept very little," he recalled in a 1969 interview. Years later, he said he actually preferred his experience on the ocean floor to his time in space."In the overall scheme of things, it's the underdog in terms of funding and public interest," he said. "They're both very important explorations. One is much more glorious than the other. Both have tremendous potential."After another stint at NASA in the mid-1960s, helping develop the Apollo lunar lander, Carpenter returned to the SeaLab program as director of aquanaut operations for SeaLab III.He retired from the Navy in 1969, founded his company Sea Sciences Inc., worked closely with Cousteau and dove in most of the world's oceans, including under the ice in the Arctic.When the 77-year-old Glenn returned to orbit in 1998 aboard space shuttle Discovery, Carpenter radioed: "Good luck, have a safe flight and ... once again, Godspeed, John Glenn."His influence felt at CUAt CU, Carpenter will be primarily remembered for his legacy in space.Klaus said there have been 20 astronauts affiliated in some way with CU, including Kalpana Chawla, who was killed in the Columbia accident in 2003, and Ellison Onizuka, who died in the Challenger accident in 1986."He was the first of a long string of astronauts that came out of CU," he said. "He was a living legend."Klaus remembers Carpenter making a visit to CU about 10 years ago, where a number of aerospace engineering students put on a presentation for him. Carpenter told Klaus that he was fascinated with the latest advancements in space travel technology and materials and would welcome the chance to start all over again learning about the field."He was excited to see the next generation coming up," Klaus said.CU-Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano said Thursday that Carpenter will be "sorely missed.""In his two-decades-long career as a Naval aviator, astronaut and aquanaut, Scott Carpenter brought honor and distinction to CU-Boulder while embodying the adventurous spirit of our nation," DiStefano said. "Our space program, and all space and ocean researchers everywhere, owe him a debt of gratitude."Although Carpenter was one course requirement short of graduating with a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering when he left CU in 1949, the university awarded him his degree in 1962 following the successful Aurora 7 flight.When presenting the degree to Carpenter, then-CU President Quigg Newton noted that "his subsequent training as an astronaut has more than made up for his deficiency in the subject of heat transfer."Stoever, who co-wrote with her father the book "For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronaut," said there's no doubt her father's time at CU helped boost the school's aeronautical engineering reputation."Being a Project Mercury astronaut gave CU a lot of cachet," she said.Great father, great teacherBut at the heart of it all, Stoever said, Carpenter was a man, a father and a great teacher."He was unusual in his generation for being gentle, kind and patient," she said. "He loved explaining how to do things the right way."Candy Carpenter said her father, who married four times and had eight children, shone in areas much more grounded than space travel. He wrote two novels: "The Steel Albatross" and "Deep Flight." And he absolutely loved music.Candy Carpenter said she'll always remember her father singing and playing guitar. When she had to be flown by rescue helicopter from her home in Big Elk Meadows in Larimer County during last month's floods, Carpenter said besides grabbing her dog, she made sure to bring with her the Gretsch guitar her father bought with Glenn in New York City in 1957.His children all picked up the instrument, Candy Carpenter said, and she went on to become a guitar teacher in Longmont."And that was because he played guitar," she said. "He was a fabulous teacher, had a great sense of humor and was handsome as the Devil."The Associated Press contributed to this reportContact Camera Staff Writer John Aguilar at 303-473-1389, aguilarj@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/abuvthefold.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.) Visit the Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.) at .dailycamera.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesself storage