Leroy Kuper American astronaut. Date of Birth: 06.03.1927 Country: USA

Biography of Leroy Cooper

Leroy Gordon Cooper (March 6, 1927 - October 4, 2004) was an American astronaut. He was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma and passed away in Ventura, California. After graduating from high school in 1945, Cooper joined the United States Marine Corps. However, before he could be deployed to the Pacific during World War II, the war ended. In 1946, Cooper left the Marine Corps and moved to the Hawaiian Islands where his parents lived. He enrolled at the University of Hawaii.
On August 29, 1947, Cooper married Trudy B. Olson. Later, he divorced his first wife and remarried Suzan Taylor on May 6, 1972. In 1949, Cooper joined the United States Air Force and underwent flight training in Texas and Arizona. From 1950 to 1954, he served as a pilot in Germany.
In 1954, Cooper returned to the United States and continued his education at the Air Force Institute of Technology in Ohio. After graduating from the institute, Cooper served as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Among the top 110 pilots in America, Gordon Cooper was invited to participate in the "Mercury" program, the first American manned spaceflight program.
On April 9, 1959, the first group of American astronauts was introduced to the public. Cooper was one of the seven astronauts selected for this group, known as the "Mercury Seven" or the "Original Seven." The other members of the group were Scott Carpenter, Virgil Grissom, John Glenn, Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton. On June 27, 1962, Cooper was selected as the backup pilot for Walter Schirra's flight on the "Sigma 7" spacecraft, which took place on October 3, 1962.
On November 13, 1962, Cooper was chosen as the pilot for the final manned mission of the "Mercury" program. His spacecraft was named "Faith 7." Cooper's backup pilot was Alan Shepard. On May 15, 1963, "Faith 7" was launched into orbit by an Atlas rocket. Cooper's flight lasted 1 day, 10 hours, 19 minutes, and 49 seconds. During this time, he orbited the Earth 22 times. Cooper's flight lasted longer than the combined duration of the previous five American manned spaceflights. He became the first American astronaut to spend over a day in space and to sleep in space. However, the flight was accompanied by numerous technical difficulties, and Cooper had to manually ignite the retro rockets for reentry. "Faith 7" splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. This was the final flight of the "Mercury" program. Although another flight was planned, with Shepard as the pilot and Cooper as the backup, NASA canceled it and focused all its efforts on the new manned spaceflight program, "Gemini."
As part of the "Gemini" program, Gordon Cooper made one spaceflight aboard the "Gemini V" spacecraft, alongside Charles Conrad. The flight took place from August 21 to August 29, 1965, and lasted 7 days, 22 hours, 55 minutes, and 14 seconds. The spacecraft completed 120 orbits around the Earth. At that time, it was the longest-duration spaceflight. For the first time, Americans set the record for the longest spaceflight, which previously belonged to Soviet cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky. Cooper became the world's first astronaut to complete two spaceflights.
Cooper also served as the backup commander for the "Gemini XII" mission.
In 1969, Gordon Cooper was the backup commander for the "Apollo 10" spacecraft, commanded by Thomas Stafford. He was a candidate for the "Apollo 13" mission, but James Lovell was selected as the commander.
Cooper left NASA and the Air Force in 1970 and went into business. He also had an interest in UFO-related issues.
In 1985, Cooper stated, "I believe that extraterrestrial ships with crews have visited our planet. These extraterrestrial ships are more technologically advanced than our current spacecraft. I think we need a coordinated, high-level program to collect and analyze UFO information worldwide and develop strategies to make friendly contact with these visitors. For many years, I lived in a world of secrecy, as did all astronauts. Today, I can reveal that radar systems in the US detect objects whose shape and structure are unknown to us on a daily basis."
Gordon Cooper passed away on October 4, 2004, at his home in California at the age of 77. He was married twice and had four daughters.