Leap of Faith : An Astronaut's Journey into the Unknown

Rating:
Summary: Earth to Gordo ... Earth to Gordo ... please come home
Review: Gordon Cooper's accounts of the early Mercury program days are a good read. Cooper covers material that will largely be familiar to readers of other space program books, but adds his own unique perspective and insight. For this reason alone, the book is worth a read.

Cooper speaks frankly to the now-famous story that he encountered a UFO during his flight of Faith 7; it never happened, he says. But there are other things he's seen as a pilot that he can't explain -- things that he describes as being not-of-this-world.

From there, the author loses credibility quickly when he begins to talk about his attempts to unravel the UFO mystery with his clairvoyant sidekick. The reader is left with the impression that not all of Gordo made it back from orbit.

Still, the book is worth a read, and the history (or Cooper's version of it) is an important piece of the story of man's race to the moon.

Rating:
Summary: Two books in one
Review: Gordon Cooper's book is actually two books in one--one very good, and one very bad. The first is an exciting document about his life as an astronaut. The second, apparently written mostly by contributor Bruce Henderson, concerns his experience with extraterrestrial aliens and the hunt for new energy sources.

In the first book, Cooper recounts his 22-orbit flight aboard his Mercury capsule, Faith 7. It was fascinating reading as he described how, near the end of his flight, the capsule malfunctioned, and the only things left working were his radio and the manual controls. That he made it back to earth safely is a testament to the fighter-pilot can-do nature. Cooper also reveals the internal politics that went on in choosing the flight crews, including why he never got to go to the moon.

This all makes for great reading. Cooper also discusses his belief in UFOs, and tells of his own sightings and top-secret UFO photos, and describes scientifically why a saucer is the ideal shape for an advanced style of aircraft. It's all believable, compelling and wonderful.

But then Cooper begins his post-NASA life, and meets a mysterious woman named Valerie Ransone. This is where the book begins to fall apart. Ransone claims to have telepathic contact with extraterrestrial aliens, and Cooper believes her. She is able to bend spoons, a lá Uri Geller, which Cooper witnesses. She wants to form a partnership with Cooper to develop new sources of infinite energy, aided by their alien friends. In the end, the company fails, and Ransone fades from Cooper's life.

I have to admit, as far fetched as this sounds, I found myself giving Cooper the benefit of the doubt. I respect the opinions of a man with advanced degrees in science, as well as space experience. After all, it is the scientist's job to ask "Why?" in an objective manner.

But this is why the second half of the book fails miserably. We never hear Cooper ask "Why?" He claims that Ransone's spoon bending was not a parlor trick, but how can he be so sure? Uri Geller was revealed as a fraud. If I were a scientist and had people bending spoons in front of me, I would have immediately marched them into a scientifically controlled experiment. But Cooper did no such thing.

At one point, Ransone invites Cooper to go on a genuine flying saucer ride with her alien friends. But at the last minute, the trip is cancelled. BUT OF COURSE. This is always the way these meet-the-aliens stories happen. A big build-up, and then nothing.

The main reason this part of the book is so bad is the narrative voice. Bruce Henderson writes it as if it were a work of fiction, as a melodramatic narrative of Gordo and Valerie's struggles together. And though the objective of their business, Advanced Technology Group, sounds impressive, we never get more than a gloss concerning what they actually did. In the end, Ransone comes off sounding like a nut. And Cooper sounds like he was used.

A number of reviewers have mentioned Leap of Faith's scientific inaccuracies and incorrect facts. The most glaring for me was the mention of the "Saturn VIII," an eight-engine rocket described as the "most powerful rocket ever built by man." But no rocket ever existed. The most powerful rocket ever built was the Saturn V, which had five engines in its first stage. A "Saturn VIII" was never even conceived of or designed, much less built. It's hard to imagine how such an error could have made it into a book written by an astronaut.

I've been trying to understand Gordo's title. It seems to me that this is what Cooper took in writing this book, knowing that his accounts of UFOs and ETs would probably be scoffed at by much of the scientific community. Trouble is, much of his argument is objective and convincing. But the book loses its edge when it stops describing science, and delves into the unexplained without trying to explain it, while reading like a dime-store novel. I'd like to see a sequel in which we hear more from Cooper the scientist, and not some ghostwriter.

Rating:
Summary: One too many trips around the Earth
Review: The first part of this book is interesting. The whole Mercury program, the behind the scenes politicing, the trips into space. And then the book gets weird. It is always interesting when public figures give UFO accounts but it would have been nice to have some backup documentation rather than vague acusations about area-51 and the government hiding things. This government doesn't seem to be able to hide two people making out in an office nevermind capturing space aliens, transporting their ship somewhere, figuring out how it works etc etc. If two people can't keep a secret can the 100's that would have had to be involved in such a coverup keep a secret? Come on folks, this guy appears to have had one too many trips around the planet.

Anyway its light summer reading and like I said, the first part of the book is fine.