Space: Image of the Day #60 - Mercury 7's Forgotten Hero

[Robert Bruce]

Image of the Day



Scott Carpenter's Aurora 7 journey to outer space was the first space flight whose focus during Carpenter's five-hour mission was on science.

The full flight plan included the first study of liquids in weightlessness, Earth photography and (believe it or not...!), an unsuccessful attempt to observe a flare fired from the ground. Yes, you read that correctly.



At dawn of the third and final orbit, Carpenter inadvertently bumped his hand against the inside wall of the cabin and solved a mystery from the previous flight. The resulting bright shower of particles outside the spacecraft - what John Glenn had called "fireflies" - turned out to be ice particles shaken loose from the spacecraft's exterior.