2,060 Minutes: Gordo Cooper and the Last American Solo Flight in Space
August 27, 2013 6:45 AM Subscribe
"Imagine being alone, in space. Just you and your shiny spacesuit and your tiny metal capsule, the world splayed beneath you in swaths of blue and swirls of white. The only immediate link to the humans below you being a faint, crackling radio line back to Earth. ... [Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr.], the seventh member of the "Original Seven," spent a total of one day, 10 hours, 19 minutes, and 49 seconds in space, making 22 full orbits of the planet before splashing down in the Pacific on May 16, 1963. (His flight overall took 34 hours.) Over the course of his long voyage, Cooper had a dinner of "powdered roast beef mush" washed down with water. He captured mesmerizing pictures of the Earth below. He became the first American to sleep in space. The story doesn't end there, though: Cooper also ran into some trouble."
Imagine being alone in space ... and almost not making it back.
Gordo Cooper and the Last American Solo Flight in Space
Unless you count the six Apollo Command Module pilots who orbited the Moon alone, a couple of them for two or three days. I get chills thinking of them alone, so far from Earth, especially when they're on the far side.
There were also the pilots of 9 and 10 who were alone, but generally within site of the LEM.
The crazy thing was the Russian lander, which would have put a single cosmonaut onto the surface of the Moon. One man, on the Moon, alone. How crazy is that?
And then there was Bruce McCandless.
posted by bondcliff at 7:09 AM on August 27, 2013 [2 favorites]
Unless you count the six Apollo Command Module pilots who orbited the Moon alone, a couple of them for two or three days. I get chills thinking of them alone, so far from Earth, especially when they're on the far side.
There were also the pilots of 9 and 10 who were alone, but generally within site of the LEM.
The crazy thing was the Russian lander, which would have put a single cosmonaut onto the surface of the Moon. One man, on the Moon, alone. How crazy is that?
And then there was Bruce McCandless.
posted by bondcliff at 7:09 AM on August 27, 2013 [2 favorites]
Throughout all this, reports make a point of emphasizing, Cooper -- alone in space, in a tiny, malfunctioning pod named Faith -- remained calm. This was in part because he had taken a medically prescribed pill of dextroamphetamine, stimulating his alertness. But it was also because these are the kinds of situations that astronauts, then as now, are trained for.
I picked the wrong time to stop sniffing glue.
posted by three blind mice at 7:20 AM on August 27, 2013 [3 favorites]
I picked the wrong time to stop sniffing glue.
posted by three blind mice at 7:20 AM on August 27, 2013 [3 favorites]
There's calm. There's preternaturally calm. And then there's "Things are beginning to stack up a little." Jesus fuck.
posted by dersins at 7:27 AM on August 27, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by dersins at 7:27 AM on August 27, 2013 [4 favorites]
It's hard to understate how important the MA-9 flight was in terms of both the space program as a whole, and to NASA's attitude towards the astronauts. NASA didn't want pilots -- they thought they could do a far better job controlling everything from the ground. And they were basically right, right up to the moment that they were horribly wrong.
But the Original 7 astronauts, all pilots, fought hard against this, and won some concessions -- they got windows, and the ability to point the spacecraft and fire the retros.
This literally saved Gordo's life and probably saved NASA. And, worse for the Spam in a Can advocates, not only did Gordo having controls that worked save his life, he then manages, on manual control, to make the most accurate landing yet -- a mere 4 miles away from the USS Kersarge, the primary recovery ship.
Pilots 1, Spam-in-a-can 0.
Ever since then, NASA made sure that the people on board could run the spaceship, and the result was that we didn't lose Neil Armstrong and David Scott in Gemini 8, or Lovell, Swigert and Haise in Apollo 13 -- and there are probably other instances where the crew on board could quickly take care of a minor issue, which then didn't become a major issue and kill them.
The problem with remote control is that if you lose comms, you lose control. In Apollo, NASA could see an enormous amount of data on the condition of the spacecraft -- right down to the position of several switches -- but they made the switches the controls, and when they needed one changed, they asked the crew. That way, they knew that the crew *could* control the craft without them, if needed. Go read the transcripts, and see how many times they read up abort PADs -- forms giving the crew everything they needed to know so that, at a given time, they could return to Earth, even if there was no communication from the ground available.
posted by eriko at 7:33 AM on August 27, 2013 [11 favorites]
But the Original 7 astronauts, all pilots, fought hard against this, and won some concessions -- they got windows, and the ability to point the spacecraft and fire the retros.
This literally saved Gordo's life and probably saved NASA. And, worse for the Spam in a Can advocates, not only did Gordo having controls that worked save his life, he then manages, on manual control, to make the most accurate landing yet -- a mere 4 miles away from the USS Kersarge, the primary recovery ship.
Pilots 1, Spam-in-a-can 0.
Ever since then, NASA made sure that the people on board could run the spaceship, and the result was that we didn't lose Neil Armstrong and David Scott in Gemini 8, or Lovell, Swigert and Haise in Apollo 13 -- and there are probably other instances where the crew on board could quickly take care of a minor issue, which then didn't become a major issue and kill them.
The problem with remote control is that if you lose comms, you lose control. In Apollo, NASA could see an enormous amount of data on the condition of the spacecraft -- right down to the position of several switches -- but they made the switches the controls, and when they needed one changed, they asked the crew. That way, they knew that the crew *could* control the craft without them, if needed. Go read the transcripts, and see how many times they read up abort PADs -- forms giving the crew everything they needed to know so that, at a given time, they could return to Earth, even if there was no communication from the ground available.
posted by eriko at 7:33 AM on August 27, 2013 [11 favorites]
Oh, yeah. The MA-9 comm transcript [pdf]. At a glance, the stack of problems starts about page 135. This version [pdf] starts with debriefings, and has a version of the transcript attached at the end. The exact time of "Well, things are beginning to stack up a little" is 33 05 43.
Well, things are beginning to stack up a little. ASCS inverter is acting up. And my CO2 is building up in the suit. Partial pressure of 02 is decreasing in the cabin. Standby inverter won't come on the line. Other thanposted by eriko at 7:46 AM on August 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
that things are fine.
Here are some details about navigating via the Earth's terminator during Apollo 13.
Sextants, Swiss watches, and slide rules. Pretty amazing.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:49 AM on August 27, 2013
Sextants, Swiss watches, and slide rules. Pretty amazing.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:49 AM on August 27, 2013
The picture of him in the old school spacesuit might be the coolest fucking thing I've ever seen.
posted by DynamiteToast at 8:00 AM on August 27, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by DynamiteToast at 8:00 AM on August 27, 2013 [3 favorites]
The picture of him in the old school spacesuit might be the coolest fucking thing I've ever seen.
I'm pretty sure that's just Time Traveling Ben Affleck.
My goal in life is to become "things are beginning to stack up a little" cool, no matter what happens.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 8:13 AM on August 27, 2013
I'm pretty sure that's just Time Traveling Ben Affleck.
My goal in life is to become "things are beginning to stack up a little" cool, no matter what happens.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 8:13 AM on August 27, 2013
From all I've read, Gordo was a complete badass, think Maverick from the movie Top Gun.
But this wasn't a good thing in NASA's eyes, as eriko touches on. Add on that Cooper didn't always have the best judgement and he tended to make NASA administrators nervous to the point where there was talk of replacing him on the Mercury mission with Alan Shepard. Shepard was all too eager to make that happen and pushed for it, but in the end Cooper got the job.
Why the nervousness about Cooper? Here's a story that Deke Slayton told in his autobiography, Deke!: He flew an F-102 jet from Houston to Huntsville, Alabama for a meeting. The runaway was too short for an F-102, but Gordo was a good enough pilot to make it work. So he lands and then calls up the local military base to come refuel him and then goes off to his meeting. When he comes out of the meeting the refueling trunk is there with a guy to refuel the plane. The guy asks Gordo if he really intends to take off from this too short runway. Gordo says yes. Refueler guys thinks its too dangerous and refuses to refuel the plane and leaves. Gordo got in the plane, which had about two minutes of fuel left in it and flies to a military base about two hundred miles away. He lands safely, no problem, but his willingness to pull antics like that made several people think 'We're not sure about putting that guy on our multimillion dollar mission.'
Mind you, no one doubted his skill as a pilot. But his judgement was suspect. Slayton had to pull him out 24 hour Baja race in the middle of training for a later mission. NASA didn't like astronauts risking their lives in any other way, you know? Gordo's response was publicly complain about NASA wanting (paraphrasing from memory) "Tiddlywinks players for astronauts." This did not help his standing.
Anyway, Gordo went on to command Gemini 5, another long duration mission, where he spent 8 days cooped up inspace the size of VW wagon's front seat with another guy, Pete Conrad. He did fine on that mission, but he didn't impress the higher ups either. He served as backup commander of Apollo 10, with the chance to rotate to commander of Apollo 13, but that was, according to Slayton, a slim chance. Cooper just didn't seem to throw himself into training as much as other commanders and with his shaky judgement, nobody felt a need to be his champion. So when it came time to name the crew of Apollo 13, Alan Shepard managed to get himself that plum slot and Gordo was left twisting in the wind. He had a press conference where he complained about the change, but that obviously didn't help. He left NASA soon after and held various consulting jobs. He died in 2004, at the age of 77.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:27 AM on August 27, 2013 [4 favorites]
But this wasn't a good thing in NASA's eyes, as eriko touches on. Add on that Cooper didn't always have the best judgement and he tended to make NASA administrators nervous to the point where there was talk of replacing him on the Mercury mission with Alan Shepard. Shepard was all too eager to make that happen and pushed for it, but in the end Cooper got the job.
Why the nervousness about Cooper? Here's a story that Deke Slayton told in his autobiography, Deke!: He flew an F-102 jet from Houston to Huntsville, Alabama for a meeting. The runaway was too short for an F-102, but Gordo was a good enough pilot to make it work. So he lands and then calls up the local military base to come refuel him and then goes off to his meeting. When he comes out of the meeting the refueling trunk is there with a guy to refuel the plane. The guy asks Gordo if he really intends to take off from this too short runway. Gordo says yes. Refueler guys thinks its too dangerous and refuses to refuel the plane and leaves. Gordo got in the plane, which had about two minutes of fuel left in it and flies to a military base about two hundred miles away. He lands safely, no problem, but his willingness to pull antics like that made several people think 'We're not sure about putting that guy on our multimillion dollar mission.'
Mind you, no one doubted his skill as a pilot. But his judgement was suspect. Slayton had to pull him out 24 hour Baja race in the middle of training for a later mission. NASA didn't like astronauts risking their lives in any other way, you know? Gordo's response was publicly complain about NASA wanting (paraphrasing from memory) "Tiddlywinks players for astronauts." This did not help his standing.
Anyway, Gordo went on to command Gemini 5, another long duration mission, where he spent 8 days cooped up inspace the size of VW wagon's front seat with another guy, Pete Conrad. He did fine on that mission, but he didn't impress the higher ups either. He served as backup commander of Apollo 10, with the chance to rotate to commander of Apollo 13, but that was, according to Slayton, a slim chance. Cooper just didn't seem to throw himself into training as much as other commanders and with his shaky judgement, nobody felt a need to be his champion. So when it came time to name the crew of Apollo 13, Alan Shepard managed to get himself that plum slot and Gordo was left twisting in the wind. He had a press conference where he complained about the change, but that obviously didn't help. He left NASA soon after and held various consulting jobs. He died in 2004, at the age of 77.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:27 AM on August 27, 2013 [4 favorites]
He put his education -- and his environs -- to use, drawing lines on Faith 7's window to help him check his orientation against the constellations outside. He shifted from passenger to pilot. "I used my wrist watch for time," Cooper later recalled, "my eyeballs out the window for altitude."
He got it right: Cooper splashed down safely, right next to the aircraft carrier that had been dispatched to retrieve him.
The hair stood up on my arms reading this. I can't even imagine.
posted by SpacemanStix at 8:49 AM on August 27, 2013
He got it right: Cooper splashed down safely, right next to the aircraft carrier that had been dispatched to retrieve him.
The hair stood up on my arms reading this. I can't even imagine.
posted by SpacemanStix at 8:49 AM on August 27, 2013
Granted it wasn't an orbital flight, but the Last American Solo Flight in Space would have been Brian Binnie in the last flight of Spaceship One in 2004. Over 100km so it's officially in space.
posted by cobrabay at 9:02 AM on August 27, 2013
posted by cobrabay at 9:02 AM on August 27, 2013
As delivered so cocky a fashion by Dennis Quaid in The Right Stuff:
"Who's the best pilot you ever saw? You're lookin' at 'im!"
posted by Fukiyama at 9:09 AM on August 27, 2013
"Who's the best pilot you ever saw? You're lookin' at 'im!"
posted by Fukiyama at 9:09 AM on August 27, 2013
Near the very beginning of "the Europa Report" (a great movie, by the way) a voice-over mentions that humanity hasn't left near Earth orbit since the 1970s. I was depressed about that statistic for a few minutes, then I thought about how much more safe and effective robotic exploration of the solar system can be. The rest of the film (no spoilers here) reinforced this thought, even though there was a lot of lip service in celebration of human spaceflight.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 10:03 AM on August 27, 2013
posted by Thoughtcrime at 10:03 AM on August 27, 2013
"Malcolm" Carpenter.
How you can tell when it's a millennial writing about the Space Program.
posted by Rash at 11:20 AM on August 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
How you can tell when it's a millennial writing about the Space Program.
posted by Rash at 11:20 AM on August 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I've never seen him as anything but Scott Carpenter...
posted by stenseng at 2:02 PM on August 27, 2013
posted by stenseng at 2:02 PM on August 27, 2013
As delivered so cocky a fashion by Dennis Quaid in The Right Stuff:
Might be worth linking to the final scene in the movie. It starts with Chuck Yaeger barely walking away from a crash site after ejecting from a NF-104 Starfighter, symbolizing the end of the Air Force space program. Then Gordo is asleep in the Mercury capsule, Glenn wakes him up for the launch, and that's all we see, Gordo, going going gone. Good archival film though.
The contrast of those two scenes is deliberate, I am amused by how they portray Yaeger as just deciding to take the NF-104 up like it's a casual whim. It turns into a determined battle to reach the highest high, with nobody around to witness it until it crashes and burns. Then cut to Gordo, the whole world is watching, while he is asleep at the switch.
posted by charlie don't surf at 6:28 PM on August 27, 2013
Might be worth linking to the final scene in the movie. It starts with Chuck Yaeger barely walking away from a crash site after ejecting from a NF-104 Starfighter, symbolizing the end of the Air Force space program. Then Gordo is asleep in the Mercury capsule, Glenn wakes him up for the launch, and that's all we see, Gordo, going going gone. Good archival film though.
The contrast of those two scenes is deliberate, I am amused by how they portray Yaeger as just deciding to take the NF-104 up like it's a casual whim. It turns into a determined battle to reach the highest high, with nobody around to witness it until it crashes and burns. Then cut to Gordo, the whole world is watching, while he is asleep at the switch.
posted by charlie don't surf at 6:28 PM on August 27, 2013
In other news: Evidence of Internal Moon Water Found
posted by homunculus at 11:31 AM on August 29, 2013
posted by homunculus at 11:31 AM on August 29, 2013
Just finished reading a chapter of Flight: My Life in Mission Control by Chris Kraft that discussed Cooper's Mercury mission.
Two things of note: Gordo buzzed the launch pad a few days before his flight began. He was in serious jeopardy of losing the mission at that point, but managed to squeak by.
The other is that is the cause of all the problems on flight. After he landed and they investigated it was determine the urine collection system malfunctioned, sending pee all over various electronics. Important lessons were learned in waste management systems and insulating electronics.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:16 AM on September 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Two things of note: Gordo buzzed the launch pad a few days before his flight began. He was in serious jeopardy of losing the mission at that point, but managed to squeak by.
The other is that is the cause of all the problems on flight. After he landed and they investigated it was determine the urine collection system malfunctioned, sending pee all over various electronics. Important lessons were learned in waste management systems and insulating electronics.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:16 AM on September 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Hey look, it's the constellation Urion.
posted by charlie don't surf at 5:55 PM on September 9, 2013
posted by charlie don't surf at 5:55 PM on September 9, 2013
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