`A GIANT AMONG US' EARTH SAYS GOODBYE TO ASTRONAUT COOPER.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

ENCINO - Space pioneer Gordon Cooper, who orbited the Earth 22 times as a Mercury astronaut, was remembered by friends and family Saturday as man whose actions spoke louder than words.

Cooper, 77, died Monday at his Ventura home. About 200 friends and family attended the Encino memorial service at St. Cyril's Church that included a military honor guard and an airplane flyover.

``He was a giant among us. He left a great footprint,'' said Roy Roush, a good friend who shared Cooper's love of treasure hunting and flying. ``For a man who hobnobbed with presidents and scientists, he was so unassuming.''

Cooper was one of the original astronauts of the U.S. Mercury program, the nation's first manned space flight program.

He piloted the final Mercury mission in May 1963, spending more than 34 hours in space - longer than any previous space flight. During that flight, Cooper became the first astronaut to sleep in space. Always calm, he also famously took a nap while waiting for blast-off on the same mission, friends recalled, laughing.

Two years after his Mercury mission, Cooper was command pilot of the Gemini 5 mission, which was designed to prove that astronauts could stay in space long enough to complete a trip to the moon.

Never having gone to the moon, Cooper left NASA and retired from the Air Force in 1970.

Throughout his life, Cooper remained humble despite his accomplishments, friends said.

Roberta L. Brenneman, a friend of more than 30 years, said that Cooper was ``never one to use an excess of words.''

Brenneman recalled that when her son Doug was studying the space program in grammar school, the 9-year-old excitedly came home with news that his godfather, Cooper, was in his science book.

Doug wanted to show Cooper the book, so Brenneman drove him to Cooper's house. While she waited in the car, Doug ran into Cooper's house and came out 10 minutes later.

What had Cooper said to the young boy? Absolutely nothing.

``It took about five minutes for Gordon to find his glasses, then he walked to the den, sat on the couch, took the book in his hands, held it up and turned his head side to side, then said 'Hmmmm','' Brenneman said. ``That was it. That was our Gordon.''

Cooper's daughter Colleen, 25, said that her father would always be with her.

``And one day, not too far away, I'll meet up with you in space, for I couldn't think of a better star navigator or tour guide,'' she said. ``I love you.''

His family plans to send a vial of his ashes into space, wife Suzanne said.

Cooper's fellow astronauts will remember their colleague at a memorial service planned for Oct. 15 at NASA in Houston, Texas.

It did not go unnoticed to family members that the trailblazing astronaut died on the same day a new generation of space explorers won a $10 million prize for building the world's first privately built reusable spacecraft - an endeavor that could herald space tourism.

In fact, Cooper had worked with Burt Rutan, the designer of the winning rocket.

``The timing was so amazing. It was one of those things you could say was meant to be,'' Suzanne Cooper said.

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) After the memorial service for astronaut Gordon Cooper, there was a military-style service including a jet flyover and widow Suzanne Cooper, joined by daughters Elizabeth, left, and Colleen, right, receiving the American flag that draped her husband's coffin.

(2) Suzanne Cooper, widow of pioneering astronaut Gordon Cooper, embraces actor and friend John McCook after the memorial service at St. Cyril's Church in Encino.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News

(3) Astronaut Gordon Cooper piloted the final Mercury mission in May 1963.

NASA