One of the last surviving astronauts of the United States’ original space program Project Mercury died on Thursday in Denver at the age of 88. M. Scott Carpenter had captured America’s hearts when, during the 1962 flight into space that would have made him the second American to orbit the Earth, the rocket had glitches that forced him to land far from the target site, almost ending his life.

On May 24, 1962, Carpenter landed in the Atlantic Ocean in his Aurora 7 capsule near Puerto Rico, about 1,000 miles southeast of the intended Cape Canaveral landing. During those four hours and 54 minutes that he was in the air, Carpenter had made a dream come true.

“I volunteered for a number of reasons,” he wrote in “We Seven,” a book of reflections by the original astronauts published in 1962. “One of these, quite frankly, was that I thought this was a chance for immortality. Pioneering in space was something I would willingly give my life for.”

During his mission, Carpenter was preoccupied with shooting photos and conducting science experiments to notice something was wrong. “At the time, I didn’t see it that way. First, I was trained to avoid any intellectual comprehension of disaster — dwelling on a potential danger, or imagining what might happen. I was also too busy with the tasks at hand.”

The cabin had become too warm, but the realization he was in danger came when the equipment controlling the capsule’s direction malfunctioned and he had to determine the proper position manually.

Carpenter managed to land the capsule 250 nautical miles from the nearest recovery ship. After landing, he got out of his capsule through a top hatch, inflated his emergency safety raft and waited for the ship to come get him. Shorty Powers, the voice of mission control, announced, “An aircraft in the landing area has sighted the capsule and a life raft with a gentleman by the name of Carpenter riding in it.”

John H. Glenn Jr., who flew the first orbital mission on Feb. 20, 1962, is now the only remaining survivor of the Mercury 7.

Before his death, Carpenter was at Cape Canaveral with Glenn attending events a few days before the 50th anniversary of Mr. Glenn’s pioneering orbital flight. Both men stated their believe that the U.S. space program should be resurrected. “John, thank you for your heroic effort and all of you for your heroic effort,” Mr. Carpenter told the gathering. “But we stand here waiting to be outdone.”