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Scott Carpenter’s official bracket-bound NASA manual entitled “Postlaunch Memorandum Report for Mercury-Atlas No. 7 (MA-7): Part I - Mission Analysis,” dated June 15, 1962, 8 x 10.5, issued as copy No. 68 of 225, with the front cover marked in ballpoint, “Scott Carpenter.” The manual contains nine sections, three appendices, and a wide array of tables and figures. The sections include: Introduction; Mission Summary; Lift-Off Configuration Description; Events, Trajectory, and Guidance; Spacecraft Performance; Launch Vehicle Performance; Pilot Activities; Flight Control and Network Performance; and Recovery. The intro reads, in part: “A preliminary analysis of the significant data has been made, and the important findings are presented in this report. Brief descriptions of the mission, the spacecraft, and the launch vehicle precede the performance analysis and supporting data. All significant events of the MA-7 mission, beginning with delivery of the spacecraft to the launch site through recovery and postflight examination, are documented.” In fine condition.
A fascinating in-house NASA document deriving from the personal collection of Aurora 7 pilot Scott Carpenter, whose historic space flight into low Earth orbit was not without its share of controversy. A series of missteps, compounded by a malfunctioning pitch horizon scanner, forced Carpenter to control his reentry manually. As a consequence, the Aurora 7 missed its landing area broadly, and Carpenter, no worse for wear, was left to float alone in his life raft for nearly an hour before recovery vehicles arrived on the scene.
