Scott Carpenter, second astronaut to orbit the earth, has passed away peacefully, and with him memories of a time when Man reached for the stars, encased in tiny capsules..amongst the first to view this world of ours beyond the atmosphere..and to behold the true glory of of the heavens.
I was seven years old when Man walked on the Moon…and God grant me the privilege of seeing the day when we once more set foot into the starry unknown.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew –
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
– Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941