MERCURY ASTRONAUT GORDON COOPER, 77.Byline: Andrea Cavanaugh Staff Writer Leroy Gordon Cooper Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr. (March 6 1927 – October 4 2004) was an American astronaut. He was one of the original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first manned-space effort by the United States. Early years Cooper was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma. , who orbited the Earth 22 times as Mercury 7 astronaut more than four decades ago, died Monday at his Ventura home. He was 77. Cooper died of natural causes at his home at about 8:45 a.m., a Ventura County coroner's investigator said. ``As one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, Gordon Cooper was one of the faces of America's fledgling space program,'' NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. Administrator Sean O'Keefe said. ``Cooper's efforts and those of his fellow Mercury astronauts, Alan Shepard Noun 1. Alan Shepard - astronaut who made the first United States' suborbital rocket-powered flight in 1961 (1923-1998) Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr., Shepard , Gus Grissom Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was a United States Air Force pilot and a NASA astronaut. A native of Mitchell, Indiana, he was the second American to fly in space. , John Glenn, Scott Carpenter Malcolm Scott Carpenter was one of the original seven astronauts selected in 1959 for Project Mercury. Created by the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Project Mercury was the United States' answer to the Soviet Union's space program. , Wally Schirra Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. (March 12, 1923 – May 3, 2007) was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury, America's first effort to put men in space. and Deke Slayton, serve as reminders of what drives us to explore.'' As the pilot of the final Mercury mission in May 1963, Cooper's flight in the Faith 7 capsule lasted more than 34 hours, more than three times longer than any previous space flight. During that flight, Cooper became the first astronaut to sleep in space. ``He was an icon of space exploration,'' said John Haire, a spokesman for the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. . ``For a young generation that wanted to fly, they looked at Gordy Cooper as a role model. He not only went into space; he gave us a renewed sense of national pride.'' Two years after the Mercury mission, Cooper, along with astronaut Charles Conrad Jr., was at the helm of the third Gemini flight. The mission, designed to prove that astronauts could stay in space long enough to complete a trip to the moon, was fraught with problems. But the pair stayed in orbit for nearly eight days, completing a ``shadow rendezvous'' with an imaginary spacecraft. ``A great mind is silenced now,'' said Don Haley, a former spokesman for NASA, said Monday upon learning of Cooper's death. ``I really admired him.'' Born March 6, 1927, in Shawnee, Okla., Cooper was selected as a Mercury astronaut in April 1959. The Mercury program, the United States' first manned space flight program, was immortalized in the 1983 film ``The Right Stuff.'' Dennis Quaid portrayed Cooper in the film, which also starred Sam Shepard and Ed Harris. Andrea Cavanaugh, (818)713-3669 andrea.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper grins broadly as he is greeted aboard the USS Kearsarge in 1963 after returning from his Mercury flight in his spacecraft, Faith 7. |
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