RIP-Gordon Cooper

[Geraldo]

Gordon Cooper, one of the Mercury 7 astronauts died at age 77. The astronauts worked on projects for Mercury, and one of Gordon's was to desgn the survival knife that they would carry. The result was made by Randall Knives, the Model 17.

 

[Centaur]

I was going to start a thread yesterday on this, but I saw that there was one in the news forum. Seeing as this will get read more, I'll break tradition, and do a double post.

I was born in March 1962, less than a month after John Glenn made his orbital flight. I was named after two of the Mercury 7. I've followed the Space program for as long as I can remember. Those men are heroes to me.

We lost Virgil "Gus" Grissom in the Apollo 1 fire. We lost Alan Shepard to leukema. We lost "Deke" Slayton to cancer. And now we've lost "Gordo" Cooper. That leaves us with John Glenn, Wally Shirra, and Scott Carpenter.

I was totally jazzed when John Glenn went up on a shuttle mission a few years ago. The man is in his 70's! He was only one pound heavier than he was in the Mercury program. Must be that Marine Corps training.

I haven't read about how his remains will be interred, but wouldn't it be poetic if his ashed were launched into orbit?

For those who haven't seen "The Right Stuff," please go out and rent it. It's an excellent movie, and starts with the race to break the sound barrier. (Chuck Yeager himself even had a small role) They made Cooper look like a hot dog of the highest order. I wonder how close it was to the truth?

 

[Esav Benyamin]

For those who haven't seen "The Right Stuff," please go out and rent it.

Great story, well done. I think they were all hot dogs, or they'd never have gotten noticed, to be astronauts Chuck Yeager pulled a few wild stunts himself!

 

[tarsier]

Have any of you seen the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon? It was originally shown on HBO, but I bought it on DVD. Highly recommended if you haven't seen it yet. They put a lot of effort into making the spacecraft authentic, and the behind-the-scenes information is fascinating. It has some historical footage, but mostly it's actors playing the part of various characters. One of my favorite episodes is on the design of the LEM (lunar lander). Anyone who has ever worked in a big organization with a lot of teams, trying to finish a complicated technical project, will recognize the situation that they faced.

 

[Geraldo]

Have any of you seen the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon?

Oh, yeah. Got it on DVD along with Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff. Also have a Randall M17 Astro and an Omega Speedmaster.

I thought that astronauts were the coolest guys on earth when I was a kid, and I guess I still do.