Word: cooperating
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...countdown went almost perfectly. At 8:04 a.m. (E.S.T.), just four minutes past schedule, the three main engines of Cooper's silvery Atlas thundered to life with lightning-white flame. There was never any doubt about the success of the launching, and as he soared into space, Gordon Cooper, the most reticent of the astronauts, was exultant. "Boy, this is beautiful," he radioed. "Boy oh boy. It looks that pretty. Boy oh boy." On the ground. Cape Communicator Schirra was also elated. "You got a real sweet trajectory, Gordo," he advised. "You're right smack...
Next morning Cooper was back in his Faith 7 capsule. As he lay on his back, the ten-story-high launch assembly swayed gently. The thin skin of the Atlas popped and clinked with expansion and contraction. Vapor whistled with pitch-pipe tones through the liquid oxygen release valve. Gyros purred-and, to the astonishment of control-center monitors, Cooper's respiration rate dropped to twelve per minute. Astronaut Cooper apparently was taking a catnap...
...flight went so well that Cooper, after his initial exhilaration, seemed almost bored. On his second orbit, while over the Pacific between Hawaii and Cali fornia, he dozed for a few moments. Then, on his ninth orbit, after nearly 14 hours in space, his program called for him to try to sleep. Advised Communicator Glenn: "I'm going to tell them [all other communicators] to go away and leave you alone now." Cooper pulled a curtain across his capsule window, allowed his craft to speed untended through outer space. In the silence of such flight, the weightless astronaut...
...Hello, Africa." For most of the time that Cooper whirled through space, sliding from night into day and day into night every 45 minutes, his capsule behaved equally well. It afforded him time for such celestial ceremonies as receiving a "good luck and Godspeed" message from Air Force Secretary Eugene Zuckert and Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay. Cooper sent a space greeting to representatives of some 30 African nations meeting in Addis Ababa: "Hello, Africa. This is Astronaut Gordon Cooper speaking from Faith 7. I am right now over 100 miles above Africa just passing Zanzibar. Just a few minutes...
Well into Cooper's second day of flight, Mercury Control Announcer John ("Shorty") Powers proudly said: "The spacecraft is still performing in almost unbelievable fashion." And then came the crisis. On his 19th orbit, while out of radio contact over the Western Pacific, Cooper reached forward, threw a switch to dim his panel lights-and saw a small indicator glow green...