Carpenter Hung Out on his Floatie, Awaiting Rescue
Kraft was worried NASA would have its first space fatality because Carpenter wouldn’t follow directions. But unknown to Carpenter, his horizon scanner was off by twenty degrees. Aurora 7 wasn’t at 24 degrees and zero-degree yaw to meet the reentry window. He aligned it manually, but the craft tipped the 25-degree tip to the right and the reentry burn started three seconds late. Carpenter splashed down 250 miles from where he was supposed to land. Carpenter was content hanging out alone in the ocean knowing the recovery ship was coming, despite not knowing when. He crawled out of the craft and floated happily in the ocean on his life raft for three hours until the pickup vessel arrived. Kraft swore Carpenter would never fly in space again. He is the only Mercury astronaut to not find a position on another space flight.