50 Years ago today, 5/15/63.

[SkyMan]

The original seven American astronauts were picked in 1959 to fly the Mercury space capsule. In 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American in space. In 1962 John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. Fifty years ago today, 5/13/63, "Gordo" Cooper became the last American to ride a Mercury capsule. He was so cool that when there were various holds placed on his launch he fell asleep in the capsule. He orbited the Earth 22 times, staying in space for ~ 34 hours. His automatic (e.g. machine operated) re-entry equipment failed, and he had to manually line up and fire his re-entry rockets. In so doing he actually landed closer to the recovery ship than any of the previous re-entries, all 5 of which had been automatic.

 

 

 

 

 

[johnny9434]

cool info skyman, history is a good thing to know

[BKW]

 

Super cool all around

[Walkerfan]

Very interesting facts with cool memorabilia.

[bsshog40]

Pretty cool Sy!!

[WoodenJefferson]

I can well remember Walter Cronkite doing the evening news, still in black & white television, reporting on Gordon Coopers launch and recovery. I knew it was history in the making....so sad to see that we no longer have a manned space program.

[johnny9434]

I can well remember Walter Cronkite doing the evening news, still in black & white television, reporting on Gordon Coopers launch and recovery. I knew it was history in the making....so sad to see that we no longer have a manned space program.

yes it is a crying shame that we are not doing that anymore. to me its almost criminal to do that ( set aside they do the pay increases and all the other garbage that they give themselfs )