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VETERANIn MemoriamNASA
VETERANIn MemoriamNASANASA·🇺🇸 United States·Born 1927
Gordon Cooper
Flew the final and longest Mercury mission, becoming the last American to orbit Earth solo, then set an eight-day endurance record on Gemini 5.
222h
Hours in Space
2
Missions
0
EVAs
—
EVA Time
Biography
Flew the final and longest Mercury mission, becoming the last American to orbit Earth solo, then set an eight-day endurance record on Gemini 5. He died in 2004.
Before NASAU.S. Air Force fighter pilot and test pilot who flew F-84 Thunderjets and F-86 Sabres in West Germany, earned an aerospace engineering degree in 1956, and accumulated over 2,000 flight hours before joining NASA's Mercury program in 1959.
Mission Timeline
- Pilot
Mercury capsule Faith 7
Mercury-Atlas 9 (Faith 7)
Launch: May 15, 1963Landing: May 16, 1963Duration: 1 day- First American to spend a full day in space; last solo US orbital flight
- Commander
Gemini spacecraft
Gemini 5
Launch: Aug 21, 1965Landing: Aug 29, 1965Duration: 8 days- Eight-day flight proving lunar-mission endurance
Beyond the Mission
Hobbies & Interests
auto racingboat racingflying
Languages
English
Fun fact
Cooper learned to fly unofficially at age 12 and held a pilot's license by 16; decades later, his passion for speed led him to enter the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race as a co-driver — until NASA ordered him to withdraw.
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