By Gavin Norman
Gaylord News
The “Original Eight” pioneers who, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society, represent the state’s storied history of bravery and technical innovation.
Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr., the Shawnee native everyone knew as “Gordo,” was flying his family’s plane by age eight. He eventually led the final Mercury flight, Faith 7, where he had to manually fly his reentry after the automatic controls went dark. He also clocked time on Gemini 5, proving humans could actually survive the long haul to the moon. He died in 2004 at the age of 77.
Thomas Patten Stafford from Weatherford was basically NASA’s go-to guy for high-stakes maneuvers. He brought Gemini 6 within a foot of another spacecraft and later commanded Apollo 10 to map out the very first lunar landing. He’s also the man behind the iconic “Handshake in Space” with the Soviets during Apollo-Soyuz. Stafford passed away recently on March 18, 2024, at age 93.
Fred Wallace Haise is the definition of Oklahoma grit. An OU grad and Air National Guard vet, he became a household name on the ill-fated Apollo 13. An explosion kept him from walking on the moon, but his technical chops as the Lunar Module Pilot turned that craft into a “lifeboat” that got the crew home. Haise is 92 now and still a huge voice in the aerospace world.
Stuart Allen Roosa grew up in Claremore and was a teenage smokejumper before he started jumping into orbit. On Apollo 14, he stayed in the command module for 33 hours alone while his crewmates walked the surface. He brought tree seeds with him that were later planted all over Earth as “Moon Trees.” Roosa passed away in 1994 at age 61.
Owen Kay Garriott, born in Enid, was one of NASA’s first true scientist-astronauts. He brought a Stanford Ph.D. to the Skylab 3 mission and later flew on the Shuttle Columbia. A massive radio nerd, he made history by conducting the first amateur radio operation from space to talk to folks back home. Garriott died in 2019 at the age of 88.
William Reid Pogue was an Okemah native and a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot. He flew on Skylab 4, which was the station’s longest mission, spending over 2,000 hours in orbit doing solar and medical research. He later helped consult on the early designs for the International Space Station. Pogue passed away in 2014 at age 84.
Shannon Wells Lucid was raised in Bethany and has three degrees from The University of Oklahoma, including a Ph.D. in biochemistry. She was in the first-ever class of female astronauts and flew five times. Her most legendary run was 188 days on the Russian station Mir, setting a record for women in orbit and becoming a hero for girls in STEM. Lucid is 83 and retired from NASA in 2012.
John Bennett Herrington, a Chickasaw Indian born in Wetumka, made history in 2002 as the first enrolled member of a Native American tribe to fly in space. He took a Chickasaw flag and eagle feathers with him to the ISS on the shuttle Endeavour. Herrington, now 67, is still a major advocate for STEM and was even featured on the 2019 Native American $1 coin.
Gaylord News is a reporting project of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. For more stories by Gaylord News go to GaylordNews.net.
