Brown
Penultimate Amazing
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Astronaut Gordon Cooper died on October 4 at the age of 77. (Story here from CNN and Reuters.)
Gordo flew in the last Mercury mission, Faith 7. He orbited the Earth for over 34 hours, making 22 orbits. He also was the first human ever to fly two orbital missions, flying with Pete Conrad on Gemini 5. Gordo worked on Apollo as a backup, but never flew in the Apollo program. He retired from NASA in 1970. (Here's his NASA bio.)
Gordo really did have "the right stuff." During his Mercury mission, he worked his way through a number of malfunctions and mishaps, and completed his mission with aplomb. He re-entered manually, and splashed down closer to the carrier Kearsarge than had fellow astronaut Wally Schirra, after his "textbook" flight, Sigma 7.
Gordo had a wicked sense of humor. After he left NASA, he had a few laughs making beer commercials.
Some say Gordo went a little woo-woo, telling some bizarre tales about UFO's and Area 51 that could not be substantiated. Nevertheless, he was a truly one of the pioneers of spaceflight, and a man of noteworthy accomplishment.
Edited to add: The Kearsarge link might not work. You can see the photo of the carrier at http://mach1collectibles.com/uss_ke...atlas_9_faith_7_recovery_8x10_photograph.html or google "Gordon Cooper splash down"
Gordo flew in the last Mercury mission, Faith 7. He orbited the Earth for over 34 hours, making 22 orbits. He also was the first human ever to fly two orbital missions, flying with Pete Conrad on Gemini 5. Gordo worked on Apollo as a backup, but never flew in the Apollo program. He retired from NASA in 1970. (Here's his NASA bio.)
Gordo really did have "the right stuff." During his Mercury mission, he worked his way through a number of malfunctions and mishaps, and completed his mission with aplomb. He re-entered manually, and splashed down closer to the carrier Kearsarge than had fellow astronaut Wally Schirra, after his "textbook" flight, Sigma 7.
Gordo had a wicked sense of humor. After he left NASA, he had a few laughs making beer commercials.
Some say Gordo went a little woo-woo, telling some bizarre tales about UFO's and Area 51 that could not be substantiated. Nevertheless, he was a truly one of the pioneers of spaceflight, and a man of noteworthy accomplishment.
Edited to add: The Kearsarge link might not work. You can see the photo of the carrier at http://mach1collectibles.com/uss_ke...atlas_9_faith_7_recovery_8x10_photograph.html or google "Gordon Cooper splash down"
