The original seven Mercury astronaut pose at NASA Langley Research Center in this undated NASA handout file photo. Back row from left, are: Alan Shepard, Virgil "Gus" Grissom and L. Gordon Cooper; front row, Walter Schirra, Donald "Deke" Slayton, John Glenn and Scott Carpenter. Carpenter, who orbited Earth in 1962, died October 10, 2013 in a Denver hospice center at age 88 of complications from a stroke, his wife Patty Carpenter said. [Photo/Agencies]