Gordon Cooper, one of the original Mercury Space Program‘s astronauts, died of natural causes on Monday at his home in Ventura, California at the age of 77.
Mr. Cooper’s death leaves just three of the original seven Mercury astronauts still living — John Glenn, the former senator from Ohio, Walter M. (“Wally”)Schirra, and M. Scott Carpenter. Virgil I. (“Gus”) Grissom was one of three astronauts killed in a 1967 fire inside an Apollo capsule on the launching pad, and Donald K. (“Deke”) Slayton and Alan B. Shepard died of natural causes several years ago.
As the pilot of the last Mercury mission, Mr. Cooper was the last American astronaut to fly alone in space. His mission on May 15-16, 1963 covered 34 hours and 20 minutes, which was more than all five of the previous Mercury flights combined. When the automatic system that was supposed to control the descent of his Mercury capsule failed, Mr. Cooper took control manually and made a bull’s-eye landing just 7,000 yards from aircraft carrier that picked up the Mercury capsules.
Mr. Cooper subsequently flew a long mission in the Gemini Space Program in which he demonstrated that a trip to the moon was feasible. Mr. Cooper’s second and last trip into space was on Gemini 5, a two-man, eight-day mission in August 1965 that set a space endurance record of over 190 hours.
Among the many firsts in spaceflight that Mr. Cooper achieved was that he was the first person to sleep in space (seven and a half hours like a log, he reported). He was also the first astronaut to fly twice, and the first American to be televised from space.
Mr. Cooper was also immortalized in film by former Houstonian Dennis Quaid‘s excellent portrayal of him in the wonderful 1983 film of Tom Wolfe’s equally superb book, “The Right Stuff.” For anyone who grew up during the early days of the American space program, “The Right Stuff” is a must see. I recently watched it again with one of my teenage sons, and we thoroughly enjoyed watching how the original astronauts took enormous risks to do something that is considered commonplace by many in my son’s generation. I also enjoyed sharing with him many of the stories of the original Mercury astronauts that are now an essential part of Houston folklore.
Rest in peace, Gordo Cooper.