May 24, 1962 - It seems fitting that Lieut. Comdr. Scott Carpenter’s reasons for naming his spacecraft Aurora VII are both lofty and down-to-earth. Exercising the pilot’s prerogative of naming the bell-shaped 3,000-pound craft, he said he had chosen Aurora VII because: “I think of Project Mercury and the open manner in which we are conducting it for the benefit of all as a light in the sky. Aurora also means dawn — in this case, dawn of a new age. The seven, of course, stands for the original seven astronauts.” And, he added, he grew up at the corner of Aurora and Seventh Streets in Boulder, Colorado.
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