Leap of Faith: An Astronaut's Journey into the Unknown
by Gordon Cooper, Bruce Henderson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bruce Henderson, Gordon CooperReader: Jason Culp
Edition: Audio Cassette
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Published: 2000-07-10
ISBN: 1565113799
Publisher: Highbridge Audio
Book Reviews of Leap of Faith: An Astronaut's Journey into the Unknown
Book Review: Houston, we have a problem...
Summary: 2 Stars
Over the past few years I have rediscovered my fascination with the 1960s space race by reading several books by or about people connected with NASA back in those glory days. After reading "Leap of Faith" I have now read biographies of all the Mercury Seven astronauts. The good news is that Gordon Cooper's book is easily one of the most interesting. The bad news is that I don't exactly mean that as a compliment.
For about two thirds of this book Cooper recounts his days with NASA and here he is, pardon the expression, on solid ground. The passages feel a bit rushed and his interpretation of events differ from other viewpoints you may have read, but he's Gordon Cooper and he's earned the right to have his say.
Unfortunately, the NASA days are only part of Cooper's life story and it's the remaining one third of the book where he drives himself into the ditch. I knew from other sources that Cooper firmly believes flying saucers have visited the Earth and our government has conspired to keep the truth from us. I don't believe this myself, but again, he's Gordon Cooper and he has earned my respect. I was willing to listen to what he had to say.
A few UFO stories would have been fine, but Cooper shoots himself in the foot and destroys whatever credibility he had when he recounts his relationship with Valerie Ransone who he met in the late 70s. Ransone claimed to receive telepathic messages from space aliens and wanted to use the knowledge she was gaining to start something called the Advanced Technology Group. Of course, this group needed some funding to get itself going.
Rarely, if ever, have I read a book before where something becomes painfully obvious to the reader but of which the author remains blissfully unaware. Ransone begins to use Cooper for his name and prestige to obtain money for what is nothing more than a huge scam. Cooper never seems to catch on. His viewpoint always seems to be "It might be true, therefore it is true."
The lowest point in this silliness comes when Ransone announces that the aliens are coming to Earth to give Cooper a ride in one of their saucers. Cooper, as gullible as can be, prepares for his expectant UFO flight just as he had for any of his NASA missions. It comes as absolutely no surprise, to anyone but Cooper I guess, when shortly before the flight the aliens are forced to cancel. Apparently there was a political squabble over this proposed flight back on the homeworld. Darn the luck.
One is left to wonder if Cooper really believed all this nonsense or if he was just including it as a way to make his book stand out and sell a few more copies. Either way, it's a pretty poor way for a true American hero to act.
Summary of Leap of Faith: An Astronaut's Journey into the Unknown
As one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, Gordon Cooper was a 20th-century pioneer, testing the limits of technology and the human body and opening new vistas of physical and intellectual exploration. In Leap of Faith, Cooper not only reveals what went on behind the scenes of the early U.S. space program, he also confronts a question that will be at the heart of space exploration in the 21st century: Is there life beyond our planet?Cooper believes emphatically that there is. He describes his personal encounters with UFOs - and with the U.S. government's longstanding program of covering up even plausible evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. On this subject, there is no more credible witness than Gordon Cooper -- and no more courageous, compelling, or thought-provoking account than Leap of Faith.
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