Former astronaut Scott Carpenter (C) shakes hands with former astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn (L) at a 40th anniversary celebration of the Apollo 11 mission and the walk on the moon while on Capitol Hill in Washington, in this file photo from July 21, 2009. REUTERS/Larry Downing/Files
DENVER (Reuters) - Astronaut Scott Carpenter, who in 1962 became the fourth American in space and the second to orbit the Earth, died on Thursday in Colorado at age 88 of complications from a stroke, his wife Patty Carpenter said.
Carpenter, who lost radio contact with NASA controllers during his pioneering space flight and was found in the ocean 250 miles from the targeted splashdown site, went on to explore the ocean floor in later years. His wife said he died in a Denver hospice.
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