Space exploration has always been a prominent source of new information about the universe, even before the United States and the Soviet Union began their space race. However, there was one astronaut who made a discovery so monumental that he chose not to share it with the public.
During a NASA mission, astronaut Gordon Cooper was assigned to collect important information about our galaxy. While orbiting the planet, he noticed something on Earth’s surface that he kept secret for nearly 50 years. However, this secret was recently revealed to the world.
Gordon Cooper, a native of Oklahoma, was introduced to flying at a young age by his father, who was an army colonel. During a ride-along in his father’s airplane, the young Cooper was allowed to briefly take control of the plane, an experience that would shape his life. By the time he was 32 years old, Cooper had served in the Marines and the Air Force, and had worked as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base. During his time there, he suggested game-changing improvements to the F-106 B Delta Dart jet fighter. Eventually, he received an incredible offer.
It was 1959 when NASA invited Cooper to Washington DC as a potential candidate for the Mercury project. The project sought to put a man into Earth’s orbit and then return him safely, and Cooper was an ideal candidate. After placing him on a shortlist of 109 potential candidates, NASA selected Cooper as one of seven men for the program.
In May 1963, he conducted his first mission aboard the Faith 7, a craft so small it could only fit someone under 5 feet 11 inches tall. The instructions NASA gave the enthusiastic Oklahoman were simple: go to space, solo, survive, and study zero gravity’s prolonged effects on the human body. At least, this was the mission as far as the public was concerned.
The project started out as a resounding success. From May 15 to 16, for just about 34 hours, Cooper orbited Earth, becoming the first astronaut to sleep in space. But then, in the midst of this enormous accomplishment, disaster nearly struck. As the Faith 7 returned to Earth, the automatic piloting system malfunctioned. Experienced flyer that he was, Cooper didn’t panic. Instead, he grabbed the controls and maneuvered the spacecraft into a perfect landing on a waiting aircraft carrier. His mission was complete, or was it?
Though the public didn’t know at the time, Cooper’s mission also involved taking pictures. ‘Man, all I do is take pictures, pictures, pictures,’ he said in a message to ground control. ‘I’m up to 5,245 now.’ But he wasn’t just looking for eye-catching images. Cooper’s camera was actually equipped to detect magnetic aberrations along the Earth’s surface. This allowed him to secretly look for Soviet nuclear bases or submarines off the coast of the United States. And boy, did he uncover some eye-opening stuff.
In the process of searching for secret nuclear bases, Cooper also detected hundreds of anomalies near the Caribbean, which he carefully charted in his small Faith 7 spacecraft. These aberrations he noticed weren’t big enough to be nuclear sites, not by a long shot. What were they? Cooper wasn’t sure what he’d spotted from space, but he had a few ideas, and they required further research.
For an unknown reason, he never told NASA or the Defense Department about these strange anomalies. He decided to embark on his own personal mission. Once safely back on Earth, Cooper started investigating his findings. The anomalies he saw all seemed bunched around old trading routes that had been highly trafficked by Spanish ships. Surely this was more than a coincidence.
Cooper quickly made the connection from the shipping routes to possible shipwrecks, and he researched everything he could regarding centuries-old shipwrecks. Eventually, he felt confident that he had, in fact, charted some of them from space. What did this all mean? The world would have to wait to find out.
He had a long and successful career, including a mission on the Gemini 5 during which he spent 190 hours in space. Still, Cooper never had the time to truly explore his findings. Then, as he grew older, time started running out. Afflicted with Parkinson’s and nearly at the end of his days, Cooper didn’t want his secret discovery to be for naught. So, he phoned his friend Darryl Miklós, an explorer who had experience hunting for rocket ship debris. Miklós would be able to investigate on Cooper’s behalf.
Cooper passed away in 2004. By then, his map was safely in his friend’s possession. At long last, it was time for Miklós to investigate what Gordon Cooper had seen from space all those decades ago. Was there any truth to it?
‘I believe Gordon 100%,’ Miklós told Parade magazine. ‘I didn’t need proof.’ Neither did the Discovery Channel, which, along with Miklós, created ‘Cooper’s Treasure,’ a 2017 TV show that documented the investigation.
So, what did they find? On one journey, Miklós and his crew traveled to a spot on Cooper’s map, looking for evidence of a shipwreck. With the help of deep-sea diving gear, they surveyed the ocean floor, hoping for a sign. Sure enough, the crew uncovered a massive anchor. They hauled it to their deck and soon realized that it was from the era of Christopher Columbus. This made it an extremely valuable artifact from the past.
By mid-2017, Miklós and his crew had searched five spots on Cooper’s map, and at all five, they found evidence of a shipwreck. With hundreds of more points left to explore, what other treasures might be waiting for Miklós to uncover?
Miklós plans to visit the rest of the locations, but it will take time. Still, as he told Newsweek, ‘I hear Gordon all the time in the back of my head, ‘You’re on the right trail,’ and it sure looked that way. Regardless of whether Miklós would be able to spend the next few decades searching, his friend’s discoveries remain to be seen. Still, you know that Gordon Cooper, the Oklahoma boy who reached the stars, would be happy to see his secret finally paid off.
Gordon Cooper may have been a lifelong teller of tall tales, but it looks like his shipwreck map really panned out. What an incredible story. Share this story with your friends below.”
