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.

Edward Vernon Rickenbacker (October 8, 1890 – July 23, 1973)

Rickenbacker was an American fighter ace in World War I and Medal
of Honor recipient with 26 aerial victories. He was this country’s most
successful fighter ace in the war. and was also a race car driver,
automotive designer, a government consultant in military matters
and a pioneer in air transportation, particularly as the longtime
head of Eastern Air Lines.

Eddie Rickenbacker posed for this photograph beside his plane in 1918

                                     
                                          Air Force Medal of Honor

  
       Tim Maguire

    
   Camille Bohannon

     Edgar Dean Mitchell, Sc.D. was born in Hereford, Texas

Mitchell is a retired U.S. Navy Captain, pilot and NASA astronaut. As the 
lunar module pilot of Apollo 14, he spent nine hours working on the lunar 
surface, making him the sixth person to walk on the Moon. Mitchell was
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon
in 1970.