58. [Mercury Atlas 9] GORDON COOPER EMERGES FROM FAITH 7, GLORIOUSLY CONCLUDING PROJECT MERCURY (diptych) NASA, 16 May 1963 Printed 1963. Two vintage gelatin silver prints on fibre-based paper [NASA image 63-MA9-166]. The first numbered "NASA S-63-7701" in black in the top margin, with NASA caption on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas), the second with NASA caption numbered "63-MA9-166" on the reverse (issued by NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.). Each: 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.) Historical context Gordon Cooper's Faith 7 mission was the culmination of Project Mercury. Total time weightless was 34 hours, 3 minutes, 30 seconds. Faith 7 completed 22 orbits, with a perigee of 161 km and an apogee of 267 km, and splashed down 7,000 yards from the waiting USS Kearsarge. The capsule was lowered to the deck of the carrier southeast of Midway Island in the Pacific. Cooper was still inside 'Faith 7' after he travelled nearly 875,000 km. He was reported in good condition, making history with the first one-day mission along with the last solo flight of the US space program. [NASA caption, second photograph] Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper begins to emerge from "Faith 7" on the deck of the carrier Kearsarge, assisted by Dr. Richard Pollard of the Aeromedical Operations Office, MSC in Houston, Tex.