Scott Carpenter
Mercury Seven astronaut who piloted Mercury-Atlas 7 (Aurora 7) in 1962, completing three Earth orbits as part of Project Mercury.
UAP relevance: PURSUE Release 02 includes NASA audio in which Carpenter describes randomly moving particles seen during his flight as looking “exactly like snowflakes” (per src-nbc-pursue-firsthand-encounters-2026-05). The “snowflakes” were historically explained as ice/frost particles shed from the spacecraft — echoing John Glenn’s earlier “fireflies” — but NBC presents the audio without resolution, consistent with PURSUE’s non-determination posture. The same Mercury-era audio is referenced as “light shavings” in src-newsnation-pursue-release-02-2026-05.