"I was kind of sorry to see that it was over when the chopper appeared and picked me up," Carpenter, now 84, told the Daily News from his Florida home. "It was the greatest adventure you can imagine."
It was 1962, and Carpenter had just become the second man to orbit the Earth - just after John Glenn's historic trip months before.
The Intrepid, converted to a museum now vying to win one of the soon-to-be-retired NASA space shuttles, is best known for surviving five kamikaze attacks during World War II.
It also was pressed into duty for NASA. The aircraft carrier had been converted into an anti-submarine ship and was the main recovery vessel for the cutting-edge space program in the early 1960s.
"It was because of the U.S. Navy's prowess on the open ocean that we were able to use the ocean as a recovery medium," Carpenter said. "The Russians didn't land on the water because they didn't have the U.S. Navy."
Carpenter missed his mark by several hundred miles, but the Intrepid - one of the Navy's most decorated warships - was racing to the rescue.
"Everybody was glad to see him," recalled retired Rear Adm. Lloyd (Doc) Abbot, who was the Intrepid's skipper at the time. "We were very happy to have him back.
"We had dinner in my cabin. The steward had brought steaks, and someone said, 'You had a hard day, Scott, you better pick a big one.' Scott looked at me and said, 'Can I have two?'
"I said, 'You can have them all!'" Abbot recalled. "It was a very, very wonderful experience."
The Intrepid was back out at sea just three years later, this time scooping up John Young and Gus Grissom after they splashed down in the Gemini capsule Molly Brown.
Now the Intrepid is hustling for a permanent NASA prize - the space shuttle Discovery, Atlantis or Endeavour - which will be awarded to three museums for permanent viewing.
And it's the ship's history with NASA's space program, not her heroism during World War II and Vietnam, that's front and center during the museum's lobbying effort.
"These early missions that the Intrepid participated in were really laying the groundwork for NASA's space program," said museum curator Jessica Williams. "When called upon to support these historic missions, she was there. She performed admirably."
NASA is expected to pick the winning museums in the coming weeks. The last shuttle flight is slated for February, with the aircrafts heading to sites like the Intrepid later next year.
Intrepid museum and city officials are hoping the ship's history with NASA will boost its chances.
"I think it's a great melding of superiority at sea and superiority in space," said Carpenter. "They should be displayed together."
read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/03/28/2010-03-28_intrepid_shuttle_bid_touts_astro_rescues.html
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