Gordon Cooper dies...

[robotical]

According to NASA, one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, Gordon Cooper, has died. A day that sees one of the greatest moments in space exploration also sees the loss of one of its first heroes.<br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/cooper_obit.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[zavvy]

<img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" />

 

[lunatic133]

WHAT? OMG that is so sad :-( However ... one cannot say that he did not lead a long and meaningful life. Hopefully he is back up in space right now :3 He was one of the three Mercury astronauts I went to the Q&A session with in Florida. Very very sad indeed!

 

[planet_z]

AP-Obit-Cooper<br /><br />Gordon Cooper, pioneering Mercury program astronaut, dies at 77<br /><br /> VENTURA, Calif. (AP) - One of the original Mercury astronauts<br />who were pioneers in human space exploration, has died.<br /> NASA officials say Gordon Cooper died today at his home in<br />Ventura, California.<br /> Cooper piloted the final flight of the Mercury program, the<br />United States' first manned spaceflight program that had the<br />primary goal of putting a man in orbit around Earth.<br /><br />(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)<br /> <br />AP-NY-10-04-04 1949EDT

 

[drwayne]

Oh goodness....<br /><br />God speed, Gordo<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>

 

[drwayne]

From here:<br /><br />Final Mercury mission, Faith 7, was piloted by Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. After 22 orbits, virtually all spacecraft systems had failed, and Cooper manually fired the retrorockets and the spacecraft reentered the atmosphere, landing safely in the Pacific Ocean 34 hours, 19 minutes, and 49 seconds after liftoff. Cooper was reported in good condition, and this turned out to be the final Mercury flight. <br /><br /><br />Memorable quote: Well, things are beginning to stack up a little. ASCS inverter is acting up. And my CO2 is building up in the suit. Partial pressure of 02 is decreasing in the cabin. Standby inverter won't come on the line. Other than that things are fine. <br /><br />Danger: In long duration mission, virtually all capsule systems failed. Nevertheless the astronaut was able to manually guide the spacecraft to a pinpoint landing.<br /><br /><br />"The Right Stuff" indeed!<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>

 

[omegamogo]

Rest in peace Gordo, rest in peace <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" /> <br /><br />This is a resized picture of him from this artical that I found.<br /><br />Edit: Crap, I accidentally uploaded a wrong version of the picture and didn't notice until today, the white space on the right was not supposed to be there!

 

[CalliArcale]

I've seen a few interviews with him. He always seemed like a genuinely nice guy, in addition to being an excellent test pilot, well able to keep his cool in the dramatic conditions of spaceflight. His Mercury flight was certainly not without incident, and might have been fatal without Cooper's extraordinary calm which permitted him to control the spacecraft even as most of its systems were failing around him, even making the deorbit burn manually. And during his flight on Gemini 5, he was able to correct most of the error that the on-board computer made during the deorbit burn (having been programmed with the wrong rotation rate for the Earth). <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[Testing]

NASA TV had an excellent series of taped interviews with L.G. Cooper on last night. Covered a number of things I was not aware of. God speed Gordon Cooper! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[viper101]

Did Gordon just fly that one mission - I seem to recall hearing once that he was bumped from Apollo 17 in favour of Jack Schmidt. <br /><br />Sad day. <br />God Speed Cooper.

 

[haywood]

Another pioneer has passed.<br />A very sad day indeed.<br />God speed Gordo.

 

[drwayne]

He flew the last Gemini if I recall correctly. He was also in the mix in the Apollo 13/14 timeframe, but did not make it in.<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>

 

[antilope]

Is anyone here old enought to remember his Mercury flight? I was 10-years old at the time and lived in southern California. I remember getting up at 5 am and watching the pre-launch coverage on our old black and white console tv. <br /><br />Rest In Peace Col. Cooper.<br />

 

[najab]

Gemini XII - Edwin "Dr Rendezvous" Aldrin and James "Houston, we've had a problem" Lovell.<p>Gordo was backup for Gemini XII, that's what probably confused him.</p>

 

[viper101]

Thanks Shuttle Guy.<br /><br />Was Cooper ever slated for a lunar mission? I'm certain I read this somewhere - that he missed out on a landing.

 

[viper101]

Yes - well - who wants to go to the moon anyway...<br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

[drwayne]

Found this here:<br />http://www.thespacerace.com/people/cooper.php<br /><br /><br />As the back-up CDR of Apollo 10 he was in line to command Apollo 13 but the return of Alan Shepard to active flight status changed the future crew assignments. Jim Lovell was given Apollo 13, Al Shepard Apollo 14 and Cooper resigned shortly after the announcements were made. <br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>

 

[viper101]

THAT'S IT - I knew he was bumped by someone - in this case, Shepherd. <br /><br />"Miles and miles and miles"

 

[lunatic133]

<b>Yes - well - who wants to go to the moon anyway... </b><br />I do!!!

 

[najab]

It's a pity he resigned. After the later missions got cut there was a good chance that if he was still around he could have got Apollo 16 instead of John Young.

 

[drwayne]

Might have suffered an unfortunate accident?<br /><br />*Just kidding*<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>

 

[viper101]

Jesus ! 5 years later I find out that Pete Conrad is also dead, thanks a picture on Fark.com (Pete and Gordo-together again) <br /><br />I honestly had no idea. <br /><br />You can fly in space, you can take a Saturn V through a thunderstorm then do a pin-point landing on the moon ...but get killed 30 years later on a bloody motorcycle. <br /><br />RIP Pete. <br /><br />

 

[arobie]

Rest in Peace Gordon Cooper, and thank you for being one of the pioneers.

 

[drwayne]

Yep, sure did. I just recently put the book up somewhere.<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>

 

[jhunter]

I recommend Gene Cernan's book "The Last Man On The Moon" for anyone interested in background on the Gemini/Apollo era... well-written book by a man who was there. RIP Col. Cooper... if we see further today, it is because we stand on the shoulders of giants such as you.