Page 152 - Cousins - Celebrities, Saints & Sinners

Other Astronaut Cousins

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In 1963 Cooper piloted the longest and last Mercury
spaceflight, Mercury-Atlas 9. During that 34-hour mission he became
the first American to spend an entire day in space, the first to sleep in
space, and the last American launched on an entirely
solo orbital mission. Despite a series of severe equipment failures, he
managed to successfully complete the mission under manual control,
guiding his spacecraft, which he named Faith 7, to a splashdown just 4
miles (6.4 km) ahead of the recovery ship. Cooper became the first
astronaut to make a second orbital flight when he flew as Command
Pilot of Gemini 5 in 1965.
Gordon Cooper

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10 cousin

In 1959 Slayton applied to, and was selected as one of the Mercury
Seven. He was scheduled to pilot the second U.S. crewed orbital
spaceflight, but was grounded in 1962 by an irregular heart rhythm.
In March 1972, he was medically cleared to fly and was the docking
module pilot of the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP).

He went on to become NASA's first Chief of the Astronaut Office and
Director of Flight Crew Operations, responsible for NASA crew
assignments. He continued to work at NASA until 1982, and helped
develop the Space Shuttle.
Deke Slayton

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In 1959, Carpenter was selected as one of the Mercury Seven astronauts.
He was backup to Glenn during the latter's Mercury Atlas 6 orbital
mission. Carpenter flew the next mission, Mercury-Atlas 7, in the
spacecraft he named Aurora 7. Due to a series of malfunctions, the
spacecraft landed 250 miles (400 km) downrange from its
intended splashdown point, but both pilot and spacecraft were retrieved.
Carpenter obtained permission from NASA to take a leave of absence
to join the U.S. Navy SEALAB project as an aquanaut. During training

Scott Carpenter he suffered injuries that disqualified him for spaceflight.

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