Gordon Cooper, an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, and United States Air Force pilot, is the youngest of the original seven Project Mercury astronauts.

Cooper orbited the planet for 34 hours in a Mercury [Faith] 7 spacecraft, showing that humans could survive for lengthy periods of time outside the atmosphere's layers.

Cooper was a pioneer in the space research operations of the United States, and his patriotism, courage, and dignity go without saying.

Gordon Cooper

Cooper has made multiple public declarations expressing his fervent belief in UFOs. Cooper, as a guest on the Merv Griffin Show, shocked audiences by speaking for more than five minutes on a topic that was regarded unsuitable for polite discussion only a few years previously.

Cooper would not, however, discuss certain things in front of an interested audience. Lee Spiegel had the good fortune of knowing Gordon Cooper personally. The former space traveler was more than happy to disclose his countless UFO sightings with the man who he says is trying to stop the "Cosmic Watergate" in the highest levels of government.

Cooper was assigned to a German jet fighter group during the start of the 1950s. During his time there, he recalls clearly a week in which a full formation of circular objects flew over the Air Base almost daily.

These had a spherical form and a metallic appearance, but we could never get near enough to identify them.

Gordan Cooper

When the Air Force Colonel was reassigned to the Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base in the California desert years later, he continued to be tormented by extraterrestrial craft. What occured when he was on duty at this military base one afternoon is significant evidence that the government does really keep numerous UFO-related secrets!

Cooper claims that the encounter took place in the late 1950s, most likely in 1957 or 1958, and that photographic proof of a genuine UFO landing on Earth is still secret. Prior to entering the US space program, Cooper worked as a Project Manager at Edwards Air Force Base for three to four years. Around lunch on this particular day, Cooper dispatched a group of photographers to an area of the enormous dry lake beds near Edwards.

Gray Aliens

In a filmed interview with UFOlogist Lee Spiegel, the former astronaut disclosed that the team spotted a strange-appearing vehicle hovering over the lakebed and began shooting it. Cooper states without a doubt that the object was floating above the earth. Then it dropped gently and rested for some minutes on the lakebed. Motion picture cameras were continually recording video throughout this time period.

The cameramen had differing opinions about the size of the item, but they all agreed that it was at least the size of a vehicle that could accommodate average-sized passengers.

Gordon

Gordon Cooper was unable to see this astonishing event in person, but he was able to watch the films as soon as they were hastily produced.

"It was a conventional UFO with a round form. It took off at a severe angle and ascended directly out of sight, so not too many people saw it."

Gordon

Cooper states that he did not undertake a poll to determine who had saw the UFO since 'there were often weird objects hovering above Edwards. By his own research, Lee Spiegel was able to validate this story; he obtained recordings of conversations between military pilots circling the facility and their commanding officers in the flight tower as they followed the emergence of unusual objects.

"People just didn't ask a lot of questions about things they saw and couldn't explain," observes Cooper, who adds that it was much easier to look the other way, shrug one's shoulders, and explain what had been observed as "just another experimental aircraft that must have been developed in another section of the air base."

"But, what about the photographic evidence that was captured on film? Cooper asserts unequivocally, "I believe it was unquestionably a UFO." "But, it's difficult to identify where it came from and who was inside because it didn't remain long enough to debate the topic; there wasn't even time to send a greeting committee!"

As soon as he had seen the video at least a dozen times, the materials were transmitted to Washington. Cooper probably expected to receive a reaction within a few weeks detailing what his men had witnessed and filmed, but there was no word, and the film vanished - never to be seen again.

Cooper recently made a comment that was broadcast coast-to-coast on television, prompting viewers to phone the stations that aired the Merv Griffin Show the next day to verify if their ears were playing tricks on them.

Merv assumed a conspiratorial tone on-air at the close of his conversation with the former Astronaut and presented the million-dollar question to his guest.

"There is a rumor circulating, Gordon, that a spaceship landed in middle America with passengers, and that our administration was able to keep one of the occupants alive for a time. They've seen the aircraft's metal and they've seen the people's faces; is this claim credible?"

Merv wrote to Gordon.

Cooper should have laughed, considering that the story's genre was science fiction or space fantasy. Gordon Cooper, though, responded with a straight face:

"I believe that to be quite plausible. I would want to see a moment when all capable individuals could collaborate to research these claims and either disprove or confirm them.

Gordon Cooper

The bomb was successfully exploded. Cooper proceeded by adding that, based on the numerous UFO contact and abduction accounts to which he had been privy, he was certain that the occupants of this crashed UFO were 'probably not that different from what we are' - that they are virtually totally humanoid (i.e., they have two arms, two legs, a torso, and easily recognizable facial features).

Lee Spiegel, astonished by what Cooper had said on national radio, phoned Cooper's office the next morning and was allowed to speak with his private secretary, when other members of the media were being ignored.

"Cooper confirmed to me that he could have divulged more on-air, but chose not to because he was convinced that 'official eyebrows would be raised.

Cooper believed until his death that the United States government was in fact hiding UFO-related information. He noticed that his fellow pilots had filed hundreds of reports, the most majority of which were from military jet pilots ordered to respond to radar or visual sightings. Throughout his later years, Cooper frequently claimed in interviews that he had encountered alien ships, and in the 2002 documentary Out of the Blue, he revealed his encounters. Cooper died of heart failure on October 4, 2004 at his home in Ventura, California, at the age of 77.