Astronaut Gordon 'Gordo' Cooper, 1927-2004 295
Grant writes "Leroy Gordon 'Gordo' Cooper, one of America's first seven astronauts, died today in his home at the age of 77. A number of space related sites are carrying the news." Grant points to coverage at SpaceRef.com, Space.com, Nasa Watch, and CNN, writing "His accomplishments will continue to inspire and he will be missed."
Sadly ironic (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:2, Interesting)
Mustn't be too much bad with the radiation and stresses involved in being launched up into space regularly. Unless of course that's not what they did...
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:2, Insightful)
I was thinking exactly the opposite: 77 seems so premature. These guys were getting the best physical conditioning and medical care the science of the day could get. Why did he have a shorter life than the average life expectancy in a typical developed country today?
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:5, Informative)
He surpassed the life expectancy of USA for males and arrived right on target for both sexes.
USA Life expectancy at birth:
male: 74.63 years
total population: 77.43 years
From CIA The World Factbook [cia.gov]
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:2, Informative)
Here are a few more typical developed countries' life expectancy rates:
Canada 79.96
UK 78.27
Germany 78.54
France 79.44
So it appears the poster's comment was true when talking about typical countries...
(Numbers also from the CIA Factbook.)
BaltikaTroika
OK, mea culpa... (Score:5, Interesting)
OTOH, considering that Israel has total/male/female life expectancies of 79.17/77.08/81.37 years, vs. the US 77.43/74.74/80.36, wouldn't it be advisable to downgrade "terrorism" as a source of danger to life in general?
The "healthcare system" isn't as big a factor... (Score:3, Informative)
...as you might think. Japan has really high numbers because of diet (rich in fish, tofu, not too much red meat, etc). Other countries probably have higher figures due to lifestyle and infrastructure issues. In particular, less dependance on the automobile which gives the US a Vietnam casualty rate every other year. The US lifestyle sucks in a lot of ways when it comes to health; in particular our overindulgence of fatty foods.
So, I really wish people would quit trying to use these figures as justific
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:3, Interesting)
The stress also couldn't have helped much.
As it is, with some things like cancer, it doesn't matter how old you are, or how good your physical condition, it can still take you down. Good health helps, but something like the more common forms of pancreatic or stomach cancer can knock the best of us out for the count.
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:2)
All in all, he did live long time for someone who was born the decade he was born.
InnerWeb
Who *CARES* about life expectancy? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:5, Insightful)
Gordo is now meeting with Shepard, Slayton, Grissom and Conrad. That should be a party. It's hard to believe that Glenn and Schirra are the only ones left.
Godspeed Gordo, we will miss you.
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:2)
I'm sure he's happier today. Gus Grissom was his best friend, and I'm sure he is glad to once again be able to trade stories and barbs with him.
Conrad was Cool, but not a Seven. (Score:4, Informative)
However, he was not an Original 7 astronaut, but part of Group 2, which includes most of the Apollo and Gemini veterans including notables like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Jim Lovell, and John Young.
The three surviving Original 7 astronauts are John Glenn, Wally Schirra (also interestingly portrayed in "From...Moon") and Scott Carpenter, who kinda got all hippie-high during his flight, overused his fuel reserves and dropped himself about 250 miles off target from splashdown.
Re:Conrad was Cool, but not a Seven. (Score:5, Informative)
John Young is still listed as on the active roster for Astronaut flight status (though he has admitted that his wife will kill him if he flew again).
John Young, Jim Lovell, and Gene Cernan are the only men who have flown to the moon twice (A10/16, A8/13, and A10/17, respectively). All three were CMPs (IIRC) before becoming Commanders in their last Apollo flights, but Lovell, of course, did not get to moonwalk. I believe that Lovell was also an Original 7 candidate.
Only Shepard of the Original 7 was a moonwalker, although it was strongly rumored that, were it not for the Fire of 1967, Gus Grissom was practically a shoe-in as the first moonwalker.
It is ironic that Gus Grissom almost drowned because a hatch would not stay shut on his first mission, and died inside a spacecraft by asphyxiation from a hatch that would not open. After the recovery of Mercury/Liberty Bell 7 from the ocean floor, it was discovered that the hatch did blow on its own, with the explosive charge that was intended to do so still intact.
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:2)
Guess we may never know. Interesting though.
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:5, Funny)
I think it's more coincidental than ironic, but I could be wrong
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:3, Funny)
I'll probably burn for this, but that was the funniest thing I've read in awhile....maybe it's just late.
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:4, Funny)
Also coincidental, the Psycho star Janet Leigh that died today was also 77.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Reminds me of a line... (Score:3, Insightful)
Gordon Cooper : You know what makes this bird go up? FUNDING makes this bird go up.
Gus Grissom : He's right. No bucks, no Buck Rogers.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Reminds me of a line... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's been said once, it's been said a million times: SpaceShipOne does not mean that NASA is a useless, wasteful government agency. SpaceShipOne did not go into orbit, a very major distinction (not to knock what they did). But it's a very different ball game, and NASA does quite a bit of other research as well. Who do you think did the inital research that developed many of the technologies that SpaceShipOne uses? It's not a nail in the coffin of government-sponsered spaceflight research.
Re:Reminds me of a line... (Score:2)
Re:Reminds me of a line... (Score:2)
It might not be useless but it is certainly wasteful...
Re:Reminds me of a line... (Score:2)
Okay, I jest. NASA's not useless. *cough*
Re:Reminds me of a line... (Score:2, Interesting)
Gordo (played by Dennis Quaid) steals the show at the end of the movie! Here's the movie's narrator's outcue...
"The Mercury program was over.
Four years later, astronaut Gus Grissom was killed, along with astronauts White and Chaffey, when fire swept through their Apollo capsule.
But on that glorious day in May, 1963, Gordo cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American.
Twenty-two complete orbits around the world.
He was the last American ever to go into Space alone.
For a brief moment
Re: Lonely Space Pilots (Score:2)
Re:Reminds me of a line... (Score:2)
Of course, it's not to say that funding was the only factor, but it was a critical componant.
Re:Planet Starbucks (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Planet Starbucks (Score:2)
Obviously, space tourism is going to lower the prices of space travel (because all the companies doing it are trying to get the costs as low as possible to get their profits as high as possible), which in turn will make it much cheaper to take the next step into other worlds.
It is, on
Oddly reminiscent (Score:2)
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:5, Insightful)
How many times have innovators become the major obstruction, either deliberately or even just by being there? Sometimes, you have to let go, in order to move on.
Gordon Cooper represented the Old Order. The NASA way of doing things. The big-budget, cutting-edge frontier of science way of viewing the world. In his time, that was an essential perspective. Nobody could do anything, if it weren't for the first few. Nobody would know how, and few enough of those would be willing to take such enormous risks.
Without the achievements of the Americans in the form of NASA, the Russians and (ultimately) the Germans, SpaceShipOne would never have existed. Even the very recent work (eg: remote-controlled probes and landers, the ion drive and guidance system AI of DS-1, etc) will be essential for successful migration to a space-based society.
Let's not forget the other players, either. The British HOTOL program (despite being cancelled) did result in a lot of progress in engine technology. It also inspired a lot of progress in reusability, far beyond NASA's vision of the Space Shuttle.
The Australians, too, with their successful development of SCRAM-jet technology, have made it viable, for the first time, to think of vehicles capable of reaching LEO without the aid of rockets. None of this is research the private sector could have afforded, even if it had the vision necessary to understand what could be done.
Every single one of the pioneering astronauts, Gordon Cooper amongst them, represented this kind of heavy-duty R&D. They were, after all, the guys test-flying this stuff. If they did not absolutely understand what they were doing, did not absolutely understand the capabilities and behaviour of what they were flying, they probably wouldn't have made it back to Earth.
Those who have died along the way have invariably done so because either they, or those they depended upon, did NOT have that depth of understanding. That's not a critisism - it's a plain and simple fact. The more unknowns you face, the lower your chances of survival. The only way to ensure survival, therefore, is to know as much as physically possible.
There's a lot of cutting-edge R&D that still needs to be done, by the Gordon Coopers of the world. But not for sub-orbital and LEO flights. That work's been done. It's been done well enough that Scaled Composites could build a vehicle capable of a 70+ mile altitude (mostly) controlled flight.
Gordon Cooper has earned his rest. The day the X-Prize was won proved, beyond all doubt, that his work had a meaning beyond the (somewhat inane and childish) political squabbles of the 60s. I hope he did get to see the flight that secured the prize. His send-off was the successful transfer of the edge of space to humanity. If you're going to die, could you ask for anything better?
Re:Sadly ironic (Score:2)
Re: Dying on significant days (Score:2)
(July 4 is when the U.S. declared its independence from Great Britain.)
Executive Summary (Score:2, Informative)
who's the best? (Score:3, Insightful)
Farewell (Score:5, Insightful)
Blue skies, Gordo.
Re:Farewell (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Farewell (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Farewell (Score:2)
"Go, Hot Dog, GO!!!!!"
A very sad milestone on a day already marked by two other great space milestones. Let us pledge to carry on our efforts to reach out into space, so that Gordo's heroics, and those of all those other astronauts, will not have been in vain.
Re:Farewell (Score:3, Informative)
Come on. He was an astronaut: Black skies, Gordo. :)
Gordo (Score:3, Interesting)
Notice on spaceshipone's first space flight last week, when asked about the 29 rolls at the top of his ascent, the pilot brushed it all off, "oh, it was nothing, training just took over."
Also, notice spaceshipone's incredible resemblance to the X-planes tested in 50's by test pilots like Chuck Yeager. Basically, spaceshipone is using 1950's technology to make its headlines.
It was the mercury astronauts and Russian cosmonauts who brought our backward world kicking and screaming to new frontiers first.
Re:Gordo (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Gordo (Score:2)
I'm not sure that ther's any resemblance between Spaceship One and the X planes. They were both dropped from other craft, and like Spaceship One, most X planes had wings, but that's about where the resemblance ends.
Re:Gordo (Score:2)
Gordon Cooper and the existence of UFOs (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know anything else. Would someone else care to comment on this?
Amazon link to the book:/ qid=1096943403/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_2_1/002-2236212-76 16055 [amazon.com]
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061098779
Re:Gordon Cooper and the existence of UFOs (Score:3, Funny)
It has been testified to by countless (hundreds in fact) military officials and government authorities. The Air Force itself admitted that many craft sighted were not it's own even though they performed extremely complex aeronautical maneuevers. Please go here [disclosureproject.org] or here [ufoevidence.org], or here [cufos.org] if you would like to do further reading.
In cas
Re:Gordon Cooper and the existence of UFOs (Score:2)
Re:Gordon Cooper and the existence of UFOs (Score:2)
In reference to "lack of credibility" please read the other reply to the parent I just posted.
In reference to "evidence." It's all there for anyone who wants to look at it. For a scientific viewpoint, I highly recommend the Condon Report of 1969. Read any section but the conclusion and you will see some great scientific analysis. For info on why the conclusion of that report differs widely from the
ufos are a modern religion (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, because it makes perfect sense for the air force to talk about classified flyers (thats assuming you've got the ear of someone high up there) to the press. And its just a big coincidence that so many of these "sightings" are not only around air force bases but indistinguishable from once-classified jets.
On top of it, you have a lot of opportunists who are ready to make (and have made) a mint from "believers." The stories start plausible enough and then the worst stereotypi
Re:ufos are a modern religion (Score:2)
But I guarantee anyone that if they spend a little time looking at the credible stuff you will see a core reality to the whole thing. Too many military officers are saying their colleagues are lying about what they have witnessed. Too many documents from when the
Re:ufos are a modern religion (Score:2)
On top of it, you have a lot of opportunists who are ready to make (and have made) a mint from "believers."
Sure, there's a lot of hokum spread about. But how is that different than say, music and the Music Industry(tm)? Or religion and the, well, Religion Industry(tm)? It's regretful, though not really surprising. So some (many) people 'believe' without fully contemplating the known facts. It makes it difficult to get serious work done but it doesn't erase the value of the matter to those of us who take
Re:ufos are a modern religion (Score:2)
Re:ufos are a modern religion (Score:2)
Too true. But the great, unwashed mass of 'believers' makes it a difficult subject to justify.
I'm confident that more and more will be recorded and thus, bring it out into the open some more. Unfortunately, a) most of those will be digital and, b) most of those will be from someone's cell phone. So it may still be a while.
Or some flash-mob savant will see something and tell two friends and cause one hell of a lot of people to look up.
Re:ufos are a modern religion (Score:2)
That has already occurred on multiple occasions. Belgium, the Mexico City eclipse sighting, etc. Unfortunately such events continue to be ignored by the American media.
Re:ufos are a modern religion (Score:2)
I remember seeing that video from Mexico City* with the saucer moving between some apt. buildings on the news. Then nothing else. Later there was some talk about it being considered to be faked. Dunno myself. But what i'm getting at is that mutiple videos/stills from all sorts of vantage points is going to pretty difficult to ignore. Then, it doesn't matter that it's digital. As long as you've got some quality stuff it'd be all over the news, with all the other shots backing it up.
i'm talking about an eve
Re:Gordon Cooper and the existence of UFOs (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Gordon Cooper and the existence of UFOs (Score:2)
Now, who's jumping to conclusions? Show me your craft. Oh right. What you have are anamolous events which can be explained without invoking the "mystery craft." Weather, lighting, etc explain away most of it.
Actually, many times the "mystery craft" does indeed turn out to be some kind of craft, except its an old spy jet, not some Ark from Beyond!
Re:Gordon Cooper and the existence of UFOs (Score:2)
That's true. But you are applying the logical mistake many make that "if most of it is conventional" all of it must be. This has been shown to be not the case by numerous studies, both from the Air Force and independent scientific efforts like the Condon study.
Re:Gordon Cooper and the existence of UFOs (Score:2)
In many of the cases the pilot's description of the craft is that of some type of metallic object operating in his general vicinity.
Now obviously some cases like this have a mundane explanation. But there also many that even after detailed examination do not lend themselves eas
Re:Gordon Cooper and the existence of UFOs (Score:2)
Mr. Cooper is not alone (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Mr. Cooper is not alone (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Mr. Cooper is not alone (Score:2)
For the record (if you RTFA), I think all religion is a waste of thought.
Re:Gordon Cooper and the existence of UFOs (Score:2)
And how long after the release of that book was he murd... er, died?
article (Score:2)
Here's a short article [space.com] about that. He wasn't a test pilot then, afaik. That was when he was stationed in Germany. The film was shot later, while on the ground at Edwards AFB. He denies seeing any from space, however.
Astronauts going space happy? (Score:2)
Edgar Mitchell claimed that he was one with the universe or some such crap on his return from the moon on Apollo 14. Since then he has become involved in pseudo-science/religion.
After James Irwin finished his moon trip on Apollo 15, he founded some religious organization and went on trips to Mt. Ararat in Turkey to try to find Noah's Ark.
Re:Gordon Cooper and the existence of UFOs (Score:2)
A memorable day, for better or worse (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:A memorable day, for better or worse (Score:2)
Leaving your 'hobbyist' remark aside... I think it's great that we live in age when our astronauts die of old age.
(ok, leaving aside cobwebbed space program..)
Nice early mention in Gene Kranz's book (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Nice early mention in Gene Kranz's book (Score:3, Informative)
Best epitaph from "The Right Stuff" (Score:5, Interesting)
On that glorious day in May 1963
Gordo Cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American:
22 complete orbits around the world.
He was the last American ever to go into space alone
and for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became
the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen.
Godspeed Gordo Cooper
Re:Best epitaph from "The Right Stuff" (Score:2)
Just a quick question: how many Americans have gone into space alone since Gordo, now?
The two guys from SpaceShipOne, right. Anyone else?
Re:Best epitaph from "The Right Stuff" (Score:2)
19 July 1963 X-15 Flight 90
22 August 1963 X-15 Flight 91.
Both those flights were after Cooper, so there was one other American who went into space alone (both flights were by Joseph Walker).
In addition, there were 10 other flights which were awarded wings under the USAF definition, but not under the FAI definition of 100km.
The Greatest Pilot Anyone Had Ever Seen (Score:2, Insightful)
Astronaught (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Astronaught (Score:2)
And you probably can't find the actual number of Soviet cosmonauts. Evidently, a couple(?) went up, but didn't come back down.
Stupîd media (Score:5, Insightful)
Stupid media. Always going after the useless thing.
Re:Stupîd media (Score:2)
Interesting Bio trivia (Score:2)
What did St Peter say to Gordo Cooper? (Score:3, Funny)
Cooper: I dunno. Who IS the Best Gatekeeper in the World?
St Peter: You're looking at him....
Re:What did St Peter say to Gordo Cooper? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What did St Peter say...(Explained) (Score:3, Informative)
One would presume that, after St. Peter delivered that last line, Gordo would bust out laughing, and St. Peter would wave him through, saying, "Go on, Gordo, Al and Gus are waitin' for ya..."
Bio for Gordon Cooper (Score:5, Informative)
NAME: Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. (Colonel, USAF, Ret.)
NASA Astronaut (former)
PERSONAL DATA: Born March 6, 1927 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. His hobbies include treasure hunting, archeology, racing, flying, skiing, boating, hunting and fishing.
EDUCATION: Attended primary and secondary schools in Shawnee, Oklahoma and Murray, Kentucky; received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 1956; recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Science degree from Oklahoma City University in 1967.
ORGANIZATIONS: The Society of Experimental Test Pilots, The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, The American Astronautical Society, The Blue Lodge Masons, The York Rite Masons, The Scottish Rite Masons, The Royal Order of Jesters, The Sojourners, The Rotary Club, The Daedalians, The Confederate Air Force, The Boy Scouts of America, The Girl Scouts of America.
SPECIAL HONORS: The Air Force Legion of Merit, The Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross, The Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross Cluster, The NASA Exceptional Service Medal, The NASA Distinguished Service Medal, USAF Command Astronaut Wings, The Collier Trophy, The Harmon Trophy, The Scottish Rite 33, The York Rite Knight of the Purple Cross, The DeMolay Legion of Honor, The John F. Kennedy Trophy, The Ivan E. Kincheloe Trophy, The Air Force Association Trophy, The Primus Trophy, The John Montgomery Trophy, The General Thomas E. White Trophy, The Association of Aviation Writers Award, The University of Hawaii Regents Medal, The Columbus Medal, The Silver Antelope, The Sport Fishing Society of Spain Award.
EXPERIENCE: Cooper, an Air Force Colonel, received an Army commission after completing three years of schooling at the University of Hawaii. He transferred his commission to the Air Force and was placed on active duty by that service in 1949 and given flight training.
His next assignment was with the 86th Fighter Bomber Group in Munich, Germany, where he flew F-84s and F-86s for four years. While in Munich, he also attended the European Extension of the University of Maryland night school.
He returned to the United States and, after two years of study at AFIT, received his degree. He then reported to the Air Force Experimental Flight Test School at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and, upon graduating in 1957, was assigned as an aeronautical engineer and test pilot in the Performance Engineering Branch of the Flight Test Division at Edwards. His responsibilities there included the flight testing of experimental fighter aircraft.
He has logged more than 7,000 hours flying time--4,000 hours in jet aircraft. He has flown all types of Commercial and General aviation airplane and helicopters.
NASA EXPERIENCE: Colonel Cooper was selected as a Mercury astronaut in April 1959.
On May 15-16, 1963, he piloted the "Faith 7" spacecraft on a 22-orbit mission which concluded the operational phase of Project Mercury. During the 34 hours and 20 minutes of flight, Faith 7 attained an apogee of 166 statue miles and a speed of 17,546 miles per hour and traveled 546,167 statue miles.
Cooper served as command pilot of the 8-day 120-revolution Gemini 5 mission which began on August 21, 1965. It was on this flight that he and pilot Charles Conrad established a new space endurance record by traveling a distance of 3,312,993 miles in an elapsed time of 190 hours and 56 minutes. Cooper also became the first man to make a second orbital flight and thus won for the United States the lead in man-hours in space by accumulating a total of 225 hours and 15 minutes.
He served as backup command pilot for Gemini 12 and as backup commander for Apollo X.
Colonel Cooper has logged 222 hours in space.
He retired from the Air Force and NASA in 1970.
Gordo steals the show at the end of the movie (Score:4, Interesting)
The movie The Right Stuff [imdb.com] is one of my all time favorite flicks... I remember seeing it in the theater when I was a kid. (I've seen it several times since then, of course.)
Gordo (played by Dennis Quaid) steals the show at the end of the movie! Here's the movie's narrator's outcue, which, combined with the imagery of Dennis Quaid blasting into space and Bill Conti's awesome musical score, is one of the all-time coolest moments in cinema:
"The Mercury program was over.
Four years later, astronaut Gus Grissom was killed, along with astronauts White and Chaffey, when fire swept through their Apollo capsule.
But on that glorious day in May, 1963, Gordo cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American.
Twenty-two complete orbits around the world.
He was the last American ever to go into Space alone.
For a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen!"
You can read a transcript of the entire film here...
http://www2.ice.usp.ac.jp/wklinger/film/scripts/r
Godspeed, Gordo (Score:4, Interesting)
He was truly one with the "right stuff".
Like the rest of the original 7, he was not only a fantastic pilot, he was also a scientist, and a damn good one.
It's ironic that on the day we lose the last American to go into space alone, we send another American into space alone.
Re:Godspeed, Gordo (Score:3, Insightful)
Shouldn't that read:
"It's ironic that on the day we lose the last human to go into space alone, we send another human into space alone."
Patriotism is for those that need to believe they are better than all others, based solely on geography and ethnocentrism.
Re:Godspeed, Gordo (Score:3, Insightful)
It would be a nice sentiment but a very false statement. Yang Liwei did a solo space flight for China in 2003, and AFAIK is still alive. Likewise Vladimir Shatalov of Russia is still alive I believe.
Met him is 2001 (Score:3, Informative)
Godspeed Gordo, in your Corvette... (Score:5, Interesting)
Is he the first...? (Score:2)
Is this the first American astronaut to die of natural causes?
kind of OT but (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Mirror of CNN article in case of /.ing (Score:2)
Re:Let's be REALISTIC here (Score:5, Insightful)
The first group of astronauts were at the apex of the pilot pyramid. A VERY competitive field. Test pilots are engineers who happen to fly extremely well.
And it was not quite as simple as you make it seem, because no one had ever done it before. NASA didn't simply build it and dump some random warm body in it. The astronauts were as much a part of the development team as the sliderule carrying geeks. The campaigned (and won) for windows ("Oh, the extra stress factor!"), and a control stick to actually fly the damn thing.
Get off your military bashing, and realize that some people go into the military for other reasons beyond "a bleak future". That is the only place where you can fly fighter jets. If you'd ever flown or ridden in one, or known some of these pilots, you might get the merest inkling of what these guys were all about.
Re:Dude. (Score:2)
Re:Dude. (Score:2)
Actually, it was the third. Mike Melvill piloted SS1 on its first space voyage in June.
Re:He will be remembered (Score:3, Informative)