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NASA Astronaut's legacy: "I lived with a secret, our instruments capture objects unknown to us"
Oct 8, 2004 10: 44 EST
Published Oct 5, 2004 16: 01 EST
Yesterday, at the dawn of private Space flight, Astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper, died at age 77 in his home in California.
"As one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, Gordon Cooper was one of the faces of America's fledgling space program. He truly portrayed the right stuff, and he helped gain the backing and enthusiasm of the American public, so critical for the spirit of exploration," NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said on the space agency's Web site.
After leaving NASA, Cooper served on the boards of directors as a technical consultant to a number of companies in the aerospace, electronics and energy fields. He also was the vice president for research and development for Walter E. Disney Enterprises Inc., from 1974-1980.
In his post-NASA career, Cooper charged that the government was covering up its knowledge of extraterrestrial activity.
"I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which obviously are a little more technically advanced than we are here on Earth," he told a United Nations panel in 1985.
"I feel that we need to have a top-level, coordinated program to scientifically collect and analyze data from all over the Earth concerning any type of encounter, and to determine how best to interface with these visitors in a friendly fashion."
He added, "For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us."
Cooper, an Air Force test pilot, piloted the Faith 7 spacecraft on a 22-orbit mission in the early sixties for the Mercury program, and also set a new space endurance record, 3,312,993 miles in 190 hours and 56 minutes on the Gemini 5 mission. In addition to his space flights, Cooper logged more than 7,000 hours flying time in jets and commercial aircraft. He retired from the Air Force and NASA in 1970 with the rank of colonel.
Image of Cooper public library.
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