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Aurora 7 with Cece Bibby |
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Scott Carpenter, May 24, 1962 |
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Cece Bibby painting the Aurora logo. |
There is an interesting story attached to the
Aurora-logo: as a test, three different kinds of paint were used. Bibby:
"I was an avid sports car enthusiast... having had a couple of MG-As, a
TR-3 and one of the first Corvettes. I used to go to sports car races
throughout the south, when time permitted. I would go to the sports car
races at Sebring, Florida, and work on the timing crew. A friend of mine
was the head timer for the Sebring races and he also worked for Pittsburgh
Paint (I think it was Pittsburgh... been so long ago). Anyway, this friend
asked about the paint I had used on John Glenn's flight and the paint test
just sort of grew from there. I suggested a test on Scotty's flight. I
obtained paint from my friend's company and someone got paint from the
other two companies. I divided up the letters in Aurora... used one kind
of paint on AU, another on RO and the third on RA. I have a photo taken after re-entry and a couple of the paints held up better than the other but I have no idea which... too long ago. You could tell they had been exposed to extreme heat. |
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A rare color photo (yes, the 7 is blue!) |
What was left after the mission. |
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Scott Carpenter inspecting his capsule. |
Souvenir |
