Under Whose Moon?

With all his laconic ways, Astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr. was a wildly acclaimed homecoming hero. In Honolulu, Cocoa Beach, Washington, New York and Houston, the Oklahoma-born Air Force major accepted roars of applause from hundreds of thousands. He reported to the U.S. on a televised news conference. He addressed a joint session of Congress. He and his wife Trudy sipped cocktails at the White House with Jack and Jackie. In the midst of it all, Cooper attended a Broadway musical--Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.

The outpouring for Cooper was both genuine and deserved. And Cooper, his fellow astronauts, and other U.S. space enthusiasts were quite candid about capitalizing on the moment to seek more space-flight funds from a Congress that is plainly worried about the cost, and the basic value, of the various man-in-space programs.

"Why Go?" As Cooper waved to 250,000 cheering spectators from a blue convertible along Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue, it was no idle impulse that had led space officials to place New Mexico's Democratic Senator Clinton Anderson beside him. As chairman of the Senate Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee, Anderson will have a lot to say about whether the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will get the $5.7 billion it has requested for 1964.

Similarly, President Kennedy made a pointed pitch for the space program in awarding Cooper NASA's Distinguished Service Medal in the White House Rose Garden. Kennedy noted that Cooper took just about as long to orbit the earth 22 times as Charles Lindbergh did to fly solo to Paris in 1927. Said Kennedy: "Both flights were equally hazardous. Both were equally daring. I know that a good many people say 'Why go to the moon?,' just as many people said to Lindbergh, 'Why go to Paris?' The U.S. has committed itself to this great adventure in the '60s.

1 think before the end of the '60s we will see a man to the moon--an American." As for those who might argue that no great harm would be done if the Soviet Union were to beat the U.S. to the moon, Vice President Lyndon Johnson asked: "What American wants to go to bed by the light of a Communist moon?"

After a two-minute ovation from the Congress, Cooper used much of his eight-minute speech to praise Project Mercury and the men who man it. "I don't think I've ever been with a team that was more dedicated, was striving harder, and was more completely sold on their product and the total space effort, and particularly the manned space-flight effort in which I am involved," he said. In his soft twang, Cooper read a prayer he had recorded over the Indian Ocean on his 17th orbit. It read in part: "Father, we thank you especially for letting me fly this flight.

Thank you for the privilege of being able to be in this position, to be in this wondrous place, seeing all these many startling, wonderful things that you have created. Help us in our future space endeavors that we may show the world that democracy really can compete and still is able to do things in a big way." The Congress was at first silent--then exploded in applause.

High Level. New York's ticker-tape reception for Cooper was both huge and heartfelt. Under a sparkling sun, a skywriter spelled out Manhattan's feelings: "Well done, Gordo." Said Cooper to a jampacked plaza outside City Hall: "I never dreamed that I would find myself in such an impressive position, with such a lovely parade and so many people turned out. However, I'd like to point out one thing--that I'm just the focal point of a very large program. In fact, this program belongs to you--you, the people, are all a basic part of this program of putting man into space." Cooper's entire speech at a post-parade luncheon in the Waldorf-Astoria: "I don't generally say very much. I'm so impressed that today I'm going to say even less. I would just like to say that on behalf of the entire Mercury team, I thank you for this wonderful day."

During the week, all of the Mercury astronauts except John Glenn (he was on a good-will trip to Japan) got in some private, high-level politicking over cocktails with Kennedy. They argued that another manned flight in a Mercury capsule should be scheduled, partly to fill the 18-month publicity gap between Cooper's shot and the first programmed two-man Gemini space mission late next year. They contended that the medical knowledge and flight experience to be gained by a 48-orbit, 72-hour Mercury flight would be well worth the $10 million it would cost (some scientists disagree, not only about Mercury, but about the basic value of any man-in-space program--see SCIENCE). As for Kennedy, his public response was enigmatic. Said he at his news conference the next day: "NASA should make the judgment and will make the judgment, and I would not intervene."

Plumbing Problems. Such a flight presumably could be used to check out solutions to the technical troubles that forced Cooper to land his spacecraft without automatic aids. Engineers have found evidence that water spilled on the capsule's wiring may have caused short circuits. That water may have come from a leak in a system designed to drain off perspiration from inside Cooper's space suit (he lost 7 Ibs. during his flight). Or it may have come from his efforts, which on at least one try took him a half-orbit around the earth, to transfer urine from his "motor-man's pal" into storage containers for laboratory study. Cooper discovered that, even with the help of a hypodermic-needle device, dealing with weightless liquid is quite a job. The engineers believe it possible that some of the stuff may have got mixed up with the wiring, causing the short circuits that kept the world in suspense for more than two hours.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.