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On April 9, 1959, the newly-formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, introduced the world to a new breed of heroes: the Mercury Seven, America’s first astronauts. Se-lected from a pool of over 500 military test pilots, these men represented the best the nation had to offer, and its best hope in the intensifying Space Race against the Soviets. Almost immediately, the Mercury Seven became national heroes: on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard would became the first American in space, while on February 20, 1962, John Glenn would become the first American to orbit the earth, a feat which...

LIFE SPACE COVER September 14, 1959 Noted this when reading the LIFE space issue. And now with Cooper passing away. The Astronauts are in the order they died in. On the right front to back we have Grissom, Slayton & Shepard And now starting left front we have Cooper With the living ones Glenn, Schirra and Carpenter in the center. So who’s next?

'Gordo' showed American spirit The death of Mercury 7 astronaut spotlights the need to continue the exploration of space The death of Mercury 7 astronaut Gordon Cooper on Monday marks the slow fading away of one of the most rarified and glorified brotherhoods on Earth. His passing and -- and that of NASA's other original astronauts -- is a loss to all who understand the courage it took to climb aboard a rocket loaded with explosive fuel and trust one's life to the skill of others in a new frontier raw with danger and the unknown. Today, with the Apollo...

Gordon Cooper, one of the nation's first astronauts on the Mercury and Gemini missions, has died, NASA confirms.

UPHAM — An unmanned rocket that took off in the inaugural launch from New Mexico's spaceport crashed in the desert Monday, failing in its mission to reach sub-orbital space. The 20-foot SpaceLoft XL rocket, among the first to be launched from a commercial U.S. spaceport, was carrying various experiments and other payloads for its planned journey 70 miles above Earth. The rocket took of at 2:14 p.m. and was due back about 13 minutes later at White Sands Missile Range, just north of the launch site. Something went wrong shortly after takeoff, sending the rocket prematurely to the ground. Officials...

Beaming him up was the easy part - the problem was transporting him back to Earth. A search team continues to look for a rocket carrying ashes of the actor James Doohan, who played Scotty on Star Trek, almost two weeks after it hurtled to the edge of space from New Mexico. Remains of the Canadian-born actor, who died two years ago at the age of 85, blasted off from a remote launch site on April 29 carrying a payload that included the ashes of astronaut Gordon Cooper and several experiments. A spokeswoman for Houston-based Space Services Inc, which organised...

James Doohan's Final Tribute in Space Nearly two years after his death, the man who made "beam me up" a household phrase has finally been beamed up himself. James Doohan, famous for his role as Scotty on "Star Trek," is one of about two hundred people whose ashes blasted off from New Mexico's Spaceport America on Saturday. "This is the best final tribute for someone like James Doohan," said Charles Chafer, owner of Space Services Inc., the company behind the launch. "Really, it was James's wish to join his buddy Gene [Roddenberry] in space."

UPHAM, N.M. - The cremated remains of actor James Doohan, who portrayed engineer "Scotty" on "Star Trek," and of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper soared into suborbital space Saturday aboard a rocket. It was the first successful launch from Spaceport America, a commercial spaceport being developed in the southern New Mexico desert. Suzan Cooper and Wende Doohan fired the rocket carrying small amounts of their husbands' ashes, and those of about 200 others, at 8:56 a.m. local time. "Go baby, go baby," said Eric Knight of the commercial launch company, UP Aerospace Inc. of Farmington, Conn. Since it was a suborbital...

The ashes of Star Trek’s Scotty and one of NASA’s first astronauts are once more bound for the final frontier, this time aboard a privately-built rocket to launch from New Mexico this month. Portions of the cremated remains of actor James Doohan, the plucky engineer of television's Starship Enterprise, and Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper are set for an April 28 launch aboard a SpaceLoft XL rocket built by the private firm UP Aerospace. The space shot – dubbed SL-2 – will lift off from Spaceport America, a state-funded launch site near Upham, New Mexico and about 45 miles (72 kilometers)...

Doohan Memorial Spaceflight Set for April 27-28 The first rocket launch which will memorialize James Doohan by taking a portion of his cremated remains into space has been set for Saturday, April 28, in New Mexico, with a public memorial planned for the day prior. The memorial service will be held at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo on Friday, April 27. The Saturday launch will take place at New Mexico's new "Spaceport America" location adjacent to the White Sands Missile Range. A specific time of day has not yet been set for either event. Both the...

NEW YORK - Beam me up, indeed! James Doohan, who played chief engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the original “Star Trek” TV series and several movies, will have a few grams of his ashes blasted 70 miles into space this fall from southern New Mexico. Houston-based Space Services Inc. plans to have the ashes of 100 others aboard the Oct. 21 “memorial spaceflight” — among them, Gordon Cooper, one of the original seven Mercury astronauts.

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 June 30 Disappearing Clouds in Carina Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), N. Walborn (STScI) & R. Barbß (La Plata Obs.), NASA Explanation: This dense cloud of gas and dust is being deleted. Likely, within a few million years, the intense light from bright stars will have boiled it away completely. Stars not yet formed in the molecular cloud's interior will then stop growing. The cloud has broken off of part of the greater...