M. Scott Carpenter entered Naval service in 1949 after graduating from the University of Colorado. He flew combat missions during the Korean War, before becoming a NASA Astronaut. He flew the second American manned orbital flight on May 24, 1962, and piloted his Aurora 7 spacecraft through three revolutions of the earth, reaching a maximum altitude of 164 miles. The spacecraft landed in the Atlantic Ocean about 1000 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral after 4 hours and 54 minutes of flight time.