Malcolm Scott Carpenter (May 1, 1925 – October 10, 2013), (
Cmdr,
USN), was an
American naval officer and
aviator,
test pilot,
aeronautical engineer,
astronaut, and
aquanaut. He was one of the
original seven astronauts selected for
NASA's
Project Mercury in April 1959. Carpenter was the second American (after John Glenn) to
orbit the Earth and the fourth American in
space, following
Alan Shepard,
Gus Grissom, and
John Glenn.