Gordon Cooper, Mercury 7 astronaut died today

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 10:29pm

Gordon Cooper, who was the youngest of the original Mercury Astronauts died today of natural causes. He was 77.

He was the pilot of the Mercury 7 mission in 1963 and with that flight became the last person to orbit the Earth alone.

He was also part of the Gemini 5 mission, when he and Charles Conrad established a space endurance record by traveling more than 3.3 million miles in 190 hours, 56 minutes. This flight proved astronauts could survive in zero gravity for the length of time a mission to the Moon would take.

Coincidentally, he died within minutes of SpaceShipOne making it's flight into space today.

YESTERDAY I watched the "from the Earth to the Moon" marathon on TBS and thought to myself "Gordon Cooper is the only serviving Mercury Astronaut whose autograph I don't have." Too late.

[The Grovers Corners Yenta]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 10:34pm

The original Mercury 7 astronauts were all my heroes as a child. I met Gordon Cooper around 1964 while visiting Cape Canaveral I was only seven at the time, but I was utterly fascinated by him and the fact that he had been in space. In fact, the Right Stuff is one of my favorite films of all time. People today just dont take the space program as seriousl as we did when I was a child. I shhok Gordon Cooper's hand.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 10:37pm

awesome.

I was at the US Air Force Museum in Ohio for the "launch" of the Ohio quarter.

The quater features "aviation pioneers" because The Wright Brothers, John Glen, and Neil Armstrong are all from Ohio.

They were giving out "first day of issue" post cards with the coin affixed to it. I got mine signed by Wilbur Wright III, John Glen, and Neil Armstrong. Now that's something to leave the grandchildren.