Gordon Cooper, one of the original Mercury astronauts, the first american to spend a day in space, has passed away. That only leaves three: Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, and John Glenn.

Cooper was an interesting man in his own right, quite apart from his place in space history. He was more willing to think outside the box and entertain esoteric ideas than some of his straighter-laced space comrades. His autobiography, Leap of Faith, is well worth reading.

One thing he was widely credited with, but stated catagorically that he did not actually do, is spot a UFO during his mission.

In Leap of Faith, after describing the UFO sightings repeatedly credited to him, Cooper writes:

"The only problem with these stories: never happened. I saw no UFOs from space. I made no radio transmissions about any object approaching my spacecraft, and have the onboard tapes of the flight to prove it... I have publicly denied this story again and again, but it won't go away," (Leap of Faith, pg. 76).

He was an inveterate believer in UFO's, though, and devotes the entire fourth chapter of his book to the subject.

Although he flew an extremely difficult mission on Mercury and the first long-duration flight on Gemini (which, incidentally, earns either him or Pete Conrad the distinction of the first american to defecate in space, according to his book) astronaut Cooper was not allowed to participate in Project Apollo.

According to Andrew Chaikin's book A Man on the Moon, Cooper's "let's just strap it on and go" attitude toward the rigorous lunar training did not sit well with the NASA brass. Plus, fellow Mercury astronaut Alan Shepherd -- by coincidence the head of the Astronaut Office at the time, and in charge of mission assignments -- was determined to make it to the moon himself at the first opportunity. Gordon Cooper was never more than a back up.

Still, he hung on until well into the '70's, and only quit NASA when it became obvious he would not even be allowed to fly the Shuttle. Ever the optimist, the end of his book leaves him hoping to fly to Mars someday.

The Gnomon bids a very fond farewell to one of the great pioneers of spaceflight, as well as one of our last links to that romantic, fascinating period when we took our first gawky, halting steps into the daunting deeps of space.