Gordon "Gordo" Cooper 1927-2004

Gordon Cooper was one of the seven original Mercury astronauts, and the youngest. He was the seventh man to ever reach space, and, as the astronaut with the longest of the Mercury missions at just over 34 hours, he was the first to fall asleep in space as well. Cooper was known as a "stick and rudder man," and despite the reckless image often held of test pilots, was known as an extremely dependable man. He later flew in the Gemini program with the late Pete Conrad. He is the fourth Mercury astronaut to leave for his final orbit; Virgil "Gus" Grissom died in the Apollo 1 fire, while Donald K. "Deke" Slayton and Alan B. Shepard both died from heart attacks. The Mercury 7 live on in John Glenn, Walter H. "Wally" Schirra, Jr, and Scott Carpenter. Gordo will be missed, and we at Rocket History send our deepest sympathies to his wife, Suzie and his family. Godspeed Gordo.