Sadly, yesterday we lost another one of our space pioneer heroes. Scott Carpenter died from complications from a stroke, he was 88 years old. I'm glad to say that I did have a chance to meet him a couple times and do have his autograph in my collection.
Scott was the 4th American in space and the 2nd to orbit the earth after John Glenn's shortened orbital flight (heat shield scare if you didn't know).
Scott was also the first to land way off course - about 250 miles - due to timing on the retro-rocket firing, but obviously he was found and it was a happy ending. He never flew in space again due to some reasons, but I'll let you read about that on the link below!
Now we just have John Glenn left of the original 7. He was the first American to orbit...and now the last of the Mercury astronauts. I always thought these pre-shuttle guys were all the best of the best, true heroes that we just don't seem to have anymore these days. Who will the next generation of space hero be?
Godspeed Scott!
Totally fictitious of course, but kind of a neat animation showing what it would look at if the moon was in the same orbital altitude as the International Space Station. If the moon was really put this close, I think it would be well inside the Roche Limit and would be torn apart and turn into a ring similar to 
