Mercury-Atlas 7

Astronaut:

Mercury-Atlas 7 was the second American orbital Mercury Programme manned space mission, launched May 24, 1962. The Mercury spacecraft was named Aurora 7 and made three Earth orbits, piloted by astronaut Scott Carpenter A targeting mishap during reentry took the spacecraft 250 miles (about 400 km) off course, delaying recovery of Carpenter and the craft. The mission used Mercury spacecraft No. 18 and Atlas launch vehicle No. 107-D.

Command Pilot:

M. Scott Carpenter

(First Flight)

Backup Crew: Walter M. Schirra

Note: The original prime crew for Mercury Atlas-7 was to have been Deke Slayton with Schirra as his back-up. However Slayton was removed from all flight crew availability after the discovery of cardiac anhythmia during a training run in the g-loading centrifuge If Slayton had flown MA-7, his spacecraft would have been named Delta 7, as this would have been the fourth manned flight and Delta (Δ) is the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet