Scott Carpenter, the fourth U.S. astronaut to fly in space and the second to orbit the Earth, died Thursday at a Denver hospice.
Carpenter’s wife, Patty, confirmed his death to Fox News. Carpenter, 88, reportedly had recently suffered a stroke.
He was chosen in 1959 to be one of NASA’s first astronauts and flew on his one and only space mission on May 24, 1962, circling the Earth three times while conducting scientific experiments.