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For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronaut
M. Scott Carpenter was America's fourth man in space, his 1962 three-orbit mission in a tiny Mercury capsule closely paralleling that of John Glenn's previous mission. But that's where the similarities end: a malfunctioning navigational system caused Carpenter to splash down, dangerously, some 250 miles off-target, and Glenn's fame would somehow forever eclipse that of all seven of his fellow original astronauts combined. This memoir, penned in conjunction with Carpenter's daughter Kris, oddly distances itself from Carpenter's life through use of a third-person narrative (only the astronaut's calm account of his perilous mission is delivered directly in his voice), a device that ultimately echoes the more personal distances Carpenter endured in his own fateful, if troubled, journey toward the stars.
While Carpenter may have been able to trace his lineage back to the Plymouth colony of the 1630s, his immediate family seemed shattered. His research-chemist father was successful but absent, his mother often a bedridden invalid. Carpenter's journey to the Mercury program after a Rocky Mountain childhood and a stint on lumbering Naval patrol planes is one of the more unlikely of the original astronaut class, and he offers up his own perspectives on what has become a compelling body of American folklore (thanks largely to Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff and the memoirs of other participants). While the account of NASA's infancy seems quaint, its officialdom often comes off as nothing short of cutthroat, perhaps inspiring the pioneering spaceman to the book's final adventures exploring a distinctly different frontier--the bottom of the ocean--as part of the Navy's endurance-minded SeaLab program. --Jerry McCulley
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 27, 2003
4 people are currently reading
224 people want to read
About the author
Scott Carpenter
41 books7 followersMalcolm Scott Carpenter (May 1, 1925 – October 10, 2013) was an American test pilot, astronaut, and aquanaut. He was one of the original seven astronauts selected for NASA's Project Mercury in April 1959. Carpenter was the second American to orbit the Earth and the fourth American in space, following Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, and John Glenn.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 1, 2017
This book really needs to be broken down into 2 parts:
1. The story that Kris Stover tells-- which is 2 stars at best; and
2. The recollections of Scott Carpenter's space flight--which I'd give 4 stars.
Now I understand that Ms Stover is Carpenter's daughter & her family history is captivating to HER, but the real reason we, the reader, pick-up a book like this, is to learn more about how he became an astronaut & what happened when he was up in space. The numerous, tedious chapters she devoted to said family, could've been condensed into one--like a preface--rather than 4. The book would've been MUCH better, if she would've divided the book into the following sections: Sky, Stars & Sea.
Scott carpenter is one of the most unique Mercury astronauts, which was the reason I picked up his biography in the first place. Once he conquered space, he went on to try & tame the underwater world. I would've REALLY liked to learn more about that endeavor. After all, he spent more years exploring the ocean than he did space. The fact that his time with Sealab received about 8 pages in this book, is a travesty..... But at least we know his father was an SOB.
Scott Carpenter would've been better served if he'd have written his biography himself. This was an opportunity missed.
1. The story that Kris Stover tells-- which is 2 stars at best; and
2. The recollections of Scott Carpenter's space flight--which I'd give 4 stars.
Now I understand that Ms Stover is Carpenter's daughter & her family history is captivating to HER, but the real reason we, the reader, pick-up a book like this, is to learn more about how he became an astronaut & what happened when he was up in space. The numerous, tedious chapters she devoted to said family, could've been condensed into one--like a preface--rather than 4. The book would've been MUCH better, if she would've divided the book into the following sections: Sky, Stars & Sea.
Scott carpenter is one of the most unique Mercury astronauts, which was the reason I picked up his biography in the first place. Once he conquered space, he went on to try & tame the underwater world. I would've REALLY liked to learn more about that endeavor. After all, he spent more years exploring the ocean than he did space. The fact that his time with Sealab received about 8 pages in this book, is a travesty..... But at least we know his father was an SOB.
Scott Carpenter would've been better served if he'd have written his biography himself. This was an opportunity missed.
July 16, 2021
Part of my ongoing project to read all of the astro and cosmo - naut biographies in (mostly) chronological order by first launch date.
This one was written by the astronaut himself along with, and I did not realize this till the very last page where the authors wrote their Thank Yous, his daughter Kris.
Scott Carpenter is perhaps the first "forgotten astronaut" biography I've read. Alan Shepard is pretty well-known for being the first American in space who later made it to the moon on Apollo 12, Gus Grissom made it to space twice but is unfortunately remembered in large part because of his tragic death in the Apollo 1 fire, and John Glenn is remembered by all for being the first American to orbit and decades later rode again on the Space Shuttle setting the record for oldest person in space (which as of this writing will soon be beat by Mercury 13 member Wally Funk on Blue Origin's New Shepard).
Scott Carpenter went to space just the once, in 1962.
The first time I read about Carpenter at length was in Tom Wolfe's famous The Right Stuff. I recall the way Wolfe depicted Carpenter during his flight was that he was having a blast doing all of the science experiments (the previous three Mercury missions had focused on the vehicle and whether or not a human could actually survive and function in space) and looking out his window towards the Earth that he forgot to pay attention to his dials and controls. This "having a picnic" resulted in the astronaut landing 250 some miles off the mark, and the mission control leader Chris Kraft declaring that Carpenter would never fly for him again.
So it was interesting to read the astronaut's side of the story. Effectively the space capsule still had some issues with the automatic controls that mostly went undetected in the previous shorter flights, the astronaut had a significantly shorter training period as he replaced Deke Slayton who NASA said could no longer fly due to a heart murmur (and Carpenter wasn't even Slayton's official backup, but was considered more technically and physically ready than Wally Schirra was at the time), the capsule became significantly warmer than was anticipated, annnnnd he had to perform all the experiments given to him. So it should almost be considered a miracle that he came back safely at all, save for his extensive training as a test pilot which allowed him to take manual control and bring the capsule back on his own.
The few middle chapters about the Aurora 7 space flight itself are the best of this book.
Unfortunately the book starts off rather slow and meanders. The first few chapters seem to focus more on Scott's father and ill mother and their non-functional relationship. These details explain in part why Scott grew up perhaps to not be so squeaky clean American patriot hero as John Glenn became, but aside from a few letters written by "Buddy" himself I don't feel like we saw as much of the astronaut at a young age. The pages seem to jump forward and back in time as well, which I realize that real-life stories hardly ever follow a consistent thread so it can be challenging to convey a meaningful chronological sequence of events in a biography, but it threw me off when his terminally-ill bed-ridden mother finally passed away but was later there for his graduation. I certainly do have a lot of respect for his mother Toye, who had tuberculosis and a husband who wanted little to do with her and his son, but she raised and took care of him and fought for him the best she could.
The book hints now and then that Carpenter was a trouble-maker, much unlike Glenn, but hardly spells out how. An unflattering LIFE Magazine bio is mentioned, as well as injuries sustained from reckless driving, and three divorces nearer the end of his life, but otherwise the book sells him as one of the greats. Sure, it's an autobiography where the dirtier details may be glossed over a bit, but it was a missed opportunity to hear the other side and reactions to events. I imagine I'll have to read some other third-party biographies about him in the future to fill these gaps.
After his space flight, Carpenter worked with the Navy as part of Sealab and became an aquanaut, still working closely with NASA and sharing research and technology findings back and forth between the two. Deep diving unfortunately slowly gave him bone necrosis which prevented him from being able to fly to space again, aside from any residual early NASA dirty politics.
Scott Carpenter was one of the best of the best of the best, physically and mentally as determined by a battery of NASA tests. Amazing then, that he was still very much a complex human being.
This one was written by the astronaut himself along with, and I did not realize this till the very last page where the authors wrote their Thank Yous, his daughter Kris.
Scott Carpenter is perhaps the first "forgotten astronaut" biography I've read. Alan Shepard is pretty well-known for being the first American in space who later made it to the moon on Apollo 12, Gus Grissom made it to space twice but is unfortunately remembered in large part because of his tragic death in the Apollo 1 fire, and John Glenn is remembered by all for being the first American to orbit and decades later rode again on the Space Shuttle setting the record for oldest person in space (which as of this writing will soon be beat by Mercury 13 member Wally Funk on Blue Origin's New Shepard).
Scott Carpenter went to space just the once, in 1962.
The first time I read about Carpenter at length was in Tom Wolfe's famous The Right Stuff. I recall the way Wolfe depicted Carpenter during his flight was that he was having a blast doing all of the science experiments (the previous three Mercury missions had focused on the vehicle and whether or not a human could actually survive and function in space) and looking out his window towards the Earth that he forgot to pay attention to his dials and controls. This "having a picnic" resulted in the astronaut landing 250 some miles off the mark, and the mission control leader Chris Kraft declaring that Carpenter would never fly for him again.
So it was interesting to read the astronaut's side of the story. Effectively the space capsule still had some issues with the automatic controls that mostly went undetected in the previous shorter flights, the astronaut had a significantly shorter training period as he replaced Deke Slayton who NASA said could no longer fly due to a heart murmur (and Carpenter wasn't even Slayton's official backup, but was considered more technically and physically ready than Wally Schirra was at the time), the capsule became significantly warmer than was anticipated, annnnnd he had to perform all the experiments given to him. So it should almost be considered a miracle that he came back safely at all, save for his extensive training as a test pilot which allowed him to take manual control and bring the capsule back on his own.
The few middle chapters about the Aurora 7 space flight itself are the best of this book.
Unfortunately the book starts off rather slow and meanders. The first few chapters seem to focus more on Scott's father and ill mother and their non-functional relationship. These details explain in part why Scott grew up perhaps to not be so squeaky clean American patriot hero as John Glenn became, but aside from a few letters written by "Buddy" himself I don't feel like we saw as much of the astronaut at a young age. The pages seem to jump forward and back in time as well, which I realize that real-life stories hardly ever follow a consistent thread so it can be challenging to convey a meaningful chronological sequence of events in a biography, but it threw me off when his terminally-ill bed-ridden mother finally passed away but was later there for his graduation. I certainly do have a lot of respect for his mother Toye, who had tuberculosis and a husband who wanted little to do with her and his son, but she raised and took care of him and fought for him the best she could.
The book hints now and then that Carpenter was a trouble-maker, much unlike Glenn, but hardly spells out how. An unflattering LIFE Magazine bio is mentioned, as well as injuries sustained from reckless driving, and three divorces nearer the end of his life, but otherwise the book sells him as one of the greats. Sure, it's an autobiography where the dirtier details may be glossed over a bit, but it was a missed opportunity to hear the other side and reactions to events. I imagine I'll have to read some other third-party biographies about him in the future to fill these gaps.
After his space flight, Carpenter worked with the Navy as part of Sealab and became an aquanaut, still working closely with NASA and sharing research and technology findings back and forth between the two. Deep diving unfortunately slowly gave him bone necrosis which prevented him from being able to fly to space again, aside from any residual early NASA dirty politics.
Scott Carpenter was one of the best of the best of the best, physically and mentally as determined by a battery of NASA tests. Amazing then, that he was still very much a complex human being.
July 18, 2023
Mercury astronaut, Scott Carpenter, is painted in a poor light in other media such as in Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. I admit that I was not sure what to think about his Aurora 7 Mercury mission despite having read a wide range of accounts. This book, written in rare third person for astronauts' books, provides an in-depth account of Carpenter's family and early life. This is something I often find lacking in astronauts' books and was a welcome change. Yet in this shift of voice and focus, the personal, first person insight of spaceflight selection, training, flight, and post-flight was lacking.
July 30, 2019
Just meh... It was interesting enough once we got to the “astronaut stuff” but then is seemed as if Carpenter needed to defend himself against NASA. It wasn’t as easy as Wolfe described in “The Right Stuff”. He was an amazing man with great talents but I really didn’t enjoy this book much.
February 28, 2022
Good story, I loved learning about Scott's life. But, I feel there was a lot of information slapped together haphazardly and a lot of disjointed thoughts strung together. Good story, but very hard to follow at times.
June 17, 2025
The first half of the book was family history (interesting but not what I came for). what a crazy path his life took
July 11, 2017
The last two chapters of this peculiar book contain a great account of Scott Carpenter's three orbit mission that he wrote. His words are written in bold face. Everything else seems to have been written by Mr. Carpenter's daughter, Kris Stoever. The rest of the book is a biography that has a distracting style with frequent odd sidelights about things that appear to have crossed the author's mind, and concentrating mostly on Scott Carpenter's father's shortcomings, his mother's illness and various slights imagined or real. More interesting is the authors' view of Chris Kraft who famously is reported to have said that Scott Carpenter "would never again fly in space". Kraft comes across as disturbed in more than one way. Most interesting to me, because, of course, of my own peculiarities, are the seemingly honest accounts of all the technical and human screw-ups. Apparently, the Air Force could have picked Carpenter up from his raft after he overshot his landing zone by 200 miles, but the Navy insisted that he wait until their ship-borne helicopter got there - after all, Carpenter was a Navy pilot.
January 14, 2015
This book made me wish he was still alive so I could ask all the questions I have about him. He really glossed over his adult life, barely mentioned his 7 kids (the one he mentioned the most was his co-author, surprise!) and only the first of his 4 wives.
He had so much interesting detail about his childhood and family, I wanted that level throughout. Still a good read, though, just wanted more.
He had so much interesting detail about his childhood and family, I wanted that level throughout. Still a good read, though, just wanted more.
July 24, 2015
I have been reading quite a few memoirs by America's NASA astronauts recently, and I'm sorry to say that so far, this was the one that I enjoyed the least.
To put it succinctly, it was heavy on technical jargon and much too light on personal information and general narrative of his Mercury mission. His daughter co-wrote the book with him.
**#46 of 100 books pledged to read/review during 2015**
To put it succinctly, it was heavy on technical jargon and much too light on personal information and general narrative of his Mercury mission. His daughter co-wrote the book with him.
**#46 of 100 books pledged to read/review during 2015**
August 28, 2010
A look at one of the more quiet members of the Mercury Seven astronauts, told with humanity and smarts. Great for anyone who enjoyed Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. As you will see in the longer review, this book was very bittersweet for me to read.
For the longer review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/content_91849...
For the longer review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/content_91849...
January 11, 2011
Once the book gets into the training and the space info- the book gets good. The first half is family info. I enjoyed the second half very much. It was amazing to read about the selection process that the first seven went through. I think the book talked so much about family since it is written by Scott's daughter.
June 9, 2013
The fifth book of the Mercury 7 that I have read - and disappointing not because of Scott's life just poor writing. A disappointing ending, post the Mercury astronaut and Sealab aquanaut what happened to Scott? Damn annoying - edit out 20 pages of his forebears and childhood and complete the story.
September 29, 2013
Anyone familiar with the Mercury program knows that Chris Kraft is not a fan of Scott Carpenter. This autobiography, published 11 years ago, reveals the reverse: that Scott Carpenter and his daughter (the co-writer) are not big fans of Chris Kraft either.
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December 18, 2008629.45 Car
June 24, 2014
Fun to read for Boulder residents and read about life in the 30s and 40s.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews