Mercury Seven — “Aurora 7”

This was the second U.S. orbital manned space flight. The flight featured space capsule attitude, stabilization and control tasks for the three-orbit mission. Carpenter became the first astronaut to eat food in space. A re-entry navigational error caused the Mercury space capsule to overshoot its southeast Atlantic Ocean landing site by 200 miles. Carpenter spent three hours in a life raft before being picked up by a rescue helicopter. Launch Date: May 24, 1962, 7:45 AM EST Launch Vehicle: Mercury-Atlas. Spacecraft unofficially named "Aurora 7" Crew: M. Scott Carpenter