Cooper Triumph. Major Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr., circles the Earth 22 times in 34 hours, 20 minutes and 30 seconds
Cooper Triumph. Major Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr., circles the Earth 22 times in 34 hours, 20 minutes and 30 seconds
Cooper Triumph! In the most ambitious space flight the United States has yet attempted, Major Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr., circles the Earth 22 times in 34 hours, 20 minutes and 30 seconds! The flight went without a hitch until the last few hours when a malfunction aboard the Faith 7 knocked out some of the automatic re-entry equipment. With coolness and aplomb, Cooper took over the controls on re-entry, fired his retro-rockets and came down right on the 'money' - only two miles from the pickup area after a flight of 600,000 miles. This is probably the last Mercury Flight. Now the United States will move into the Gemini Program -- week long flights with a rendezvous in space. Cape Canaveral, Florida Major Cooper getting his space suit on. MS - Major Cooper entering the van that will take him to the launch pad. MS - Evening. A parade of cars going to the launch pad. MLS - Launching pad with rocket, just before daybreak. MS - Truck pulling up to the launching pad. MS - Cooper exiting the trailer with warm greeting from the engineers and other workmen. MS - Cooper and engineers ride up to the entrance of the rocket ship. SGL - Elevator making its way up the rocket. MCUS - Cooper entering the capsule carefully. LS - Launch pad with rocket. MS - Newsmen on a roof with their cameras and telephoto lenses. MLS - You can hear the countdown and see the rocket starting its rocket engines. The rocket lifts off leaving a trail of fire from the rockets. OHS - Throngs watching the take off. LS - A speck in the sky leaving a smoke trail. CU - Animation of Faith 7 in space. CUS - Cooper at the controls of Faith 7. OHS - People on big city streets and buying newspapers. CUS - Two taxi cab drivers standing by their cab listening to their radio. OHS - Aircraft carrier Kearsarge and a smaller battleship. CUS - Animation of Faith 7 re-entering the earths atmosphere. MS - Helicopters and the aircraft carrier. MS - Sailors looking through binoculars standing on the deck of the USS Kearsarge CUS - Major Cooper wearing a huge smile.