6. Mercury-Atlas 7 missed its landing target by 250 miles
MA 7 was named Aurora 7 by Scott Carpenter, the astronaut it carried over three orbits of the earth on May 24, 1962. Aurora 7 was the second American orbital mission. Carpenter had several scientific experiments to conduct on the flight, which was scheduled to last five hours. Carpenter also carried solid food into space for the first time in the American program, though problems with crumbs from the freeze-dried cubes raised concerns over clogging the ventilation system, and he decided to avoid eating them. The temperature within the capsule reached over 100 degrees during the flight, which melted the other solid food he was supplied, chocolate bars.
With most of his experiments completed successfully and having solved the mystery of the “tiny fireflies” reported by John Glenn on his earlier flight (ice crystals dislodged from the capsule) Carpenter began re-entry later than planned and was rushed in the completion of his checklist. Carpenter activated his retro-rockets late, and the result was an error which led to his landing 250 miles from his intended target. It took several hours of searching before the recovery vessels located the capsule and astronaut northeast of Puerto Rico. Carpenter was taken aboard the USS Farragut, a destroyer, since the aircraft carrier designated to recover him and the capsule was over 200 miles from the scene.