While looking through one of my Grandma’s Scrapbooks tonight I ran across an interesting page.

The page had a large picture from the announcement of the seven Mercury astronauts.

The seven were all servicemen and came from different branches of the service.

In the picture are Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard, Virgil Grissom, Donald Slayton, John Glenn, Malcolm Carpenter and Leroy Cooper. We remember them today as the Mercury Seven.

Of course we have the answer to the picture caption. The first to fly into space was Alan Shepard. In May of 1961 he flew in Freedom 7 which made the first sub-orbital flight.

Of course many of us also know that John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth in February of 1962 in Friendship 7. Click on the link for an article about his flight.

John Glenn is the only one of the Mercury Seven who is still alive today

The sub-heading of the accompanying article also caught my eye. I wanted to know which of the Mercury Seven received flight training in Iowa. I also wondered where that training took place.

The pilot who trained in Iowa was Malcolm S. Carpenter who was better known as Scott Carpenter.

Carpenter trained at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Ottumwa, Iowa. I also found that there are other astronauts who have trained there, but he was the first.

Carpenter was the second American to orbit the earth. In May of 1962 he flew in Aurora 7.

I went to school in Ottumwa during most of my grade school years, so I found this very interesting.

Steven