Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. (March 6, 1927 - October 4, 2004), also known as Gordon Cooper, was an American aeronautical engineer, test pilot and one of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first manned space program of the United States.
Cooper piloted the longest and final Mercury spaceflight in 1963. He was the first American to sleep in space during that 34-hour mission and was the last American to be launched alone to conduct an entirely solo orbital mission. In 1965, Cooper flew as command pilot of Gemini 5.
Read more about Gordon Cooper: UFO Sightings, Memorial Spaceflights, Awards and Decorations, Cultural Influence
Famous quotes containing the words gordon and/or cooper:
“Oh! too convincing—dangerously dear—
In woman’s eye the unanswerable tear!”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“At the rate science proceeds, rockets and missiles will one day seem like buffalo—slow, endangered grazers in the black pasture of outer space.”
—Bernard Cooper (b. 1936)