The Flight Controller wrote a scathing report of this mission. Apparently Carpenter paid little attention to his checklists and didn't respond to direct commands from Mission Control promptly. Instead he looked around, using fuel to orient the craft for a better view.

While "Flight" saw to it that Carpenter never flew in space again, for public consumption he was treated as a hero after landing. I'm afraid I'd be another Carpenter with that window.

Mercury 7 - - 1962 May 24 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 0.21 days. Flight details:

Scott Carpenter in Aurora 7 is enthralled by his environment but uses too much orientation fuel. Yaw error and late retrofire caused the landing impact point to be over 300 km beyond the intended area and beyond radio range of the recovery forces. Landing occurred 4 hours and 56 minutes after liftoff. Astronaut Carpenter was later picked up safely by a helicopter after a long wait in the ocean and fears for his safety. NASA was not impressed and Carpenter left the agency soon thereafter to become an aquanaut.

Arf