Gordon Cooper Dies at 77

Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 10/05/2004

[Poohbah]

On May 15, 1963, Cooper piloted Faith 7, the Mercury program's last flight, circling the globe 22 times in 34 hours and 20 minutes. The mission made him the last astronaut to orbit Earth alone and the first to take a nap during the journey.

Hell, he took a nap during the countdown!

[IGOTMINE]

Go, Hotdog, GO!

Well done, Gordo. Enjoy that final ride.

[SF Republican]

Cooper gave his signature line during a 1995 reunion of surviving Mercury astronauts. When asked who was the greatest fighter pilot he ever saw, Cooper enthusiastically answered, ''You're looking at him!'' - One of my favorite lines in The Right Stuff at the end (and I paraphrase) was that Cooper flew further, higher and faster than any man alive.

[Thebaddog]

I'm still looking at him, from afar. Godspeed, Gordo.

[My2Cents]

God's speed, Gordo.

[Rummyfan]

So long Gordo! Godspeed!

Who were the original seven: Cooper, Grissom, Shepard, Schirra, Glenn, Carpenter, and ??

Deke Slayton?

[pikachu]

I was told that the original Mercury Astronaughts would go to the doctors after their space flight complaining of an odd toe nail fungul growth. It was diagnosed as mistletoe.

sorry for the obigatory joke in advance

[So Cal Rocket]

4 of the Mercury 7 have now slipped the surly bonds of Earth and touched the face of God.

Gus Grissom -- 1926 - 1967
Deke Slatyon -- 1924 - 1993
Alan Shepard -- 1923 - 1998
Gordon Cooper -- 1927 - 2004

[My2Cents]

You are correct, sir. Old Deke and Gus. Great names for two of America's pioneer space travellers.

[JBR34]

Isn't Scott Carpenter Dead??

[Okies love Dubya 2]

I live in Mr. Cooper's birthplace, where the local vo-tech is named for him.

RIP to a great American.

[Rummyfan]

I wouldn't have known other than the article posted says he is still alive.

[BamaDi]

Good-bye Gordo from one of those who grew up in the 50's,60s...I remember sitting in my 3rd grade class and watching John Glenn on an old black and white TV - have we come a long way! Godspeed to an American Hero and now you can again reach out and touch the face of God.

[Dog]

Ed White?

[Rummyfan]

Watched some of the reruns of FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON on Sunday.... really brought back the memories of the nuns letting us watch the launches back in grade school. The whole space program has to rank as one of the greatest engineering achievements in the history of mankind. I'm not sure we could do it again right now even with our thousand-fold advances in information processing, communications technology, etc etc. People should never forget that we did it.

[ProudVet77]

How times have changed. Happen to see a piece on TV a few months ago, where Jules Berman the old ABC science editor from back then was shown talking about a problem they encountered during a mercury coutdown. He made it sound like - no big deal we have the best engineers working on it and we'll be set to go tomorrow. Current journalists would be telling us how we're already past our peak and we'll fail no matter what. The difference in the coverage between now and then is so breathtaking. So upbeat back then, so downbeat now. A little bit of that crept out in the right stuff where Eric Severide(?) got negative during Glenn's launch.
Yesterday I lambasted my local TV stations for not covering the launch of the space composite rocket. They would rather show Iraqi's with womens underwear on their heads.

[Tallguy]

Correct, it was Deke Slayton. Slayton was grounded for an irregular heartbeat, or some such nonsense. He finally flew as command pilot of the Apollo/Soyuz mission.

[Rummyfan]

I believe Ed White and Pete Conrad missed the Mercury selection but did make it for Gemini and Apollo. Of course Ed White died in the Apollo I fire with Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee. If you haven't read THE RIGHT STUFF it's a great retelling of the Mercury program.

[Tallguy]

Ed White was in the "next nine".