Word: gordo
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...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 dab in the middle of the plot." Little more could be said: Cooper's velocity, programmed at an ideal of 25,715 ft. per second, was 25,716; his heading was just .0002 of a degree from perfect...
...Pilot. What kind of man did it take to do what Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr. did? Of the original seven U.S. astronauts, "Gordo" Cooper was the youngest (36), slightest (5 ft. 9 in., 147 Ibs.), quietest, least known-and, in the opinion of many, the least likely to win the world's acclaim for a marvel of skill and courage...
Cooper was all but born in a pilot's seat. A native of Oklahoma, his father was a lawyer, a county judge from Shawnee-and an amateur pilot. Gordo sat in his father's lap during voyages in an old Command-Aire biplane, took the stick himself by the time he was six. As a teenager, he worked odd jobs around the Shawnee airport to pay for lessons in a J-3 Piper Cub trainer. He was inspired, in part, by stories his father told about two famed acquaintances, Amelia Earhart and Wiley Post. Gordo soloed "officially...
Gordon Cooper Sr. (who died in 1960) became a legal officer in the Air Force during World War II, liked it so well that he made it a career. Gordo enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school graduation, served in the presidential honor guard in Washington, then joined his parents in their home at Honolulu's Hickam Air Force Base. Attending the University of Hawaii, he met a pert drum majorette named Trudy Olson. Among Trudy's attractions: she owned a third interest in a Piper Cub and taught flying. They were married in 1947; and today...
While officials squabbled 'about the trip to the moon, the least known of the astronauts was tapped for what may be the last flight of Project Mercury. Next April Air Force Captain Leroy Gordon ("Gordo") Cooper, 35, is scheduled to make an all-day, 18-orbit trip...