Mercury Seven Survivors Say Goodbye To One Of Their Own

At the height of the space race, as the US and USSR competed for all sorts of world records, Gordon Cooper had fishing on his mind.

To hear John Glenn tell it, Cooper walked into the commisary at Cape Canaveral (FL) one night, soaked to the bone, his shoes muddy, a fishing pole in one hand.

"They've got the biggest bullfrogs up there I've ever heard in my life," he told the USAF NCO who ran the joint.

The NCO, apparently much more familiar with the local fauna than Astronaut Cooper, asked a few questions, then said, "Mr. Cooper, those aren't frogs. Those are alligators."

"Gordo didn't fish there anymore after that," Glenn said.

That story and so much more were the hallmarks at a memorial service for Gordon Cooper at the Johnson Space Center in Houston (TX) last week, as the surviving Mercury Seven said goodbye to one of their own. Cooper died of natural causes October 4th at his home in Ventura (CA).

To hear his fellow astronauts tell it, Cooper was the ultimate cool customer. Almost bypassed during the Mercury program, Cooper was the last to fly into space alone, aboard Faith 7. With the rocket strapped on his back, awaiting the final countdown, Cooper actually fell asleep. And when Faith 7's guidance system went south upon re-entry, he did such a good job of bringing the ship down manually that the aircraft carrier sent to pick him up didn't need to dispatch a helicopter -- Cooper was that close to the target.

His second and last mission into space suffered even more problems. Teamed up with Charles "Pete" Conrad aboard Gemini 5 in August 1965, Gordon found his spacecraft perpetually rolling over and over as it orbited the Earth. And yet, Cooper and Conrad stayed in orbit for a total of 191 hours -- setting a new space endurance record.

Although he was picked as backup commander for Apollo 10, Cooper never flew in space again.

"As we consider his life, we can catch a glimpse of the countless lives Gordon Cooper touched as a man, as a friend and an astronaut," said Henri Landwirth of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. He got to know the men while running the Starlight Hotel in Cocoa Beach. "Our nation and the world are better places because Gordon Cooper lived among us."

The Mercury Seven are now just three in number. Only John Glenn, Wally Schirra and Scott Carpenter survive.

"These were the superheroes of our time, and deservedly so," said NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe.

Astronaut Gordon Cooper has gone west, where guidance systems never fail, every day is a mission in space and every landing is right on target. Happy landings, Gordo.

FMI: www.nasa.gov