M. Scott Carpenter (1925–2013)

A collection of memoirs "by THE ASTRONAUTS themselves" (it says so on the cover) from the original Mercury 7 in 1962. A fascinating historical account of their backgrounds (including John Glenn's Korean war stories), training (including the MASTIF device in Cleveland that spins you on three axes simultaneously - even the expression head over heels doesn't do it justice), technical information about the capsule and boosters (you have to keep reminding yourself what they called a computer was in the early 60s), and tense descriptions of the ballistic and orbital missions with all of the various human and mechanical malfunctions. Not that easy to read since the authors were engineers and all had the same outlook, and the book must have passed through some editor or ghostwriter's hands since there is a slightly numbing uniformity.… (altro)

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.… (altro)

I really enjoyed this book. Lengthy descriptions of so many aspects of getting humans into space. This was the Mercury Project from the point of view of the initial seven astronauts selected, from 1959 to 1962, and covered the first four Americans in Space. From the psychology tests to lying in a capsule, absolutely gripping reading. I wished the book carried on to the end of the project to include the last two manned flights. I found it useful to watch the old period videos of television coverage at the time. Sometimes it seemed I was learning rocket-science. I wonder what the "Voss Meter" actually looked like? Interesting to compare this book to "Starman : Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin", some major obvious similarities, but We Seven is much more detailed and personal.… (altro)