Malcolm Scott Carpenter (May 1, 1925 – October 10, 2013)

(FoxNews) – Scott Carpenter, the fourth U.S. astronaut to fly in space and the
second to orbit the Earth, died Thursday at a Denver hospice.

Carpenter’s wife, Patty, confirmed his death to Fox News. Carpenter, 88, of Vail,
Colo., recently suffered a stroke.

Along with John Glenn, who flew three months before him, Carpenter was one of
the last two surviving original Mercury 7 astronauts for the fledgling U.S. space
program.

He was chosen in 1959 to be one of NASA’s first astronauts and flew on his one
and only space mission on May 24, 1962, circling the Earth three times while
conducting scientific experiments.

As an astronaut and aquanaut who lived underwater for the U.S. Navy, Carpenter
was the first man to explore both the depths of the ocean and the heights of space.

Carpenter gave the famous send-off — "Godspeed, John Glenn" — when Glenn
became the first American in orbit in February 1962.