Liftoff of Aurora 7

Aurora 7 lifts off from Cape Canaveral, carrying Scott Carpenter on a three-orbit flight that closely repeated John Glenn's mission three months earlier. A series of piloting errors and fuel shortages left Carpenter unable to fire his retrorockets at the planned moment, and the capsule splashed down about 250 miles off target, leaving recovery forces searching for nearly an hour before locating Carpenter safe in his life raft.