Project Mercury Astronaut Selection
NASA introduces Cooper as one of the original seven astronauts selected for Project Mercury flight training.
Historical biography archive · Updated 2026-11-03
Leroy Gordon Cooper Biography and Timeline
Follow Leroy Gordon Cooper through 5 dated historical records for United States of America.
Leroy Gordon Cooper, historical timeline
A chronological timeline drawn from matching World History Database records.
5Distinct records
1 of 1Page
1959–1963Years on this page
1959
1963
Faith 7 Mercury
Cooper launches aboard Faith 7 on the final crewed mission of Project Mercury.
Faith 7 Manual Reentry
Cooper manually controls key reentry steps after electrical and automatic-control problems develop late in the Faith 7 mission.
Project Mercury Final Flight
Faith 7 splashes down successfully, closing the crewed flight phase of Project Mercury after more than thirty-four hours in space.
Mercury 22 Orbits
Cooper completes twenty-two Earth orbits during Faith 7, making the longest and final crewed flight of Project Mercury.
Records, sources and methodology
These dates and descriptions come from the historical_events database. Exact duplicate records have been collapsed. Names are grouped by the country, Name 2 and Name 1 fields; records with missing Name 2 cannot be reliably assigned to an individual biography. Check the underlying sources before formal citation.