This Astronaut Uncovered Treasure In Space and Kept It a Secret for Five Decades



This Astronaut Uncovered Treasure from Space and Kept It a Secret for Five Decades

Our universe is full of mysteries, just waiting to be discovered. Despite vast advancements in space exploration, the human race has so much to learn uncover. This astronaut was on a NASA sponsored mission when he made his own discovery. But he decided to keep it to himself for nearly half a century.

Flying Young


It seems that Gordon Cooper was destined to be a pilot since he was a small child. At the age of seven, his father, who was an Army colonel, decided to take him for a flight on his plane.

It was the first time Gordon touched the controls of an airplane, and he was hooked for life. His love of flying only grew stronger as he transitioned from being a child into adulthood.


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Career minded


When you love what you do, work might actually feel more like play. That was the case for Gordon, who had achieved a great deal in his young career. By the time he was 32 years old, he had accumulated a lot of experience, serving in the Marines and the Air Force.

When he was a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base, he made interesting suggestions to improve the F-106B Delta Dart jet fighter. And that led to this incredible invitation.
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NASA


In 1959, NASA had zoomed in on Cooper as a strong candidate for the Mercury Project. They asked him to join them in Washington, D.C. NASA intended on sending a man into Earth’s orbit to gather information.

They needed a highly skilled pilot, who could handle the challenges of such a mission. The pilot needed to be skilled enough to return back to earth safely, while also managing the scientific tasks and goals of the mission itself. Gordon fit the bill, as he had the combination of skills and intelligence to get the job done.


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Final Seven


NASA began to search for the right candidates for the job. Of the 109 final potential pilots, Cooper was among the final seven who were elected by NASA’s brass. This particular mission involved a very small aircraft. In fact, only a pilot who was under five feet and eleven inches tall, could actually fit into it.

By May of 1963, Cooper had already carried out his first mission with the aircraft, which had the name Faith 7. Such a complex mission demanded a lot of training, in order to increase the odds of its success.
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The Mission


Cooper received clear instructions from NASA regarding the mission. The underlying goal was to travel into space by himself and to assure the safe exit into space and return back to Earth. Once in outer space, he would be tasked with gathering critical data and information about zero gravity, and the effects it has on the human body over a prolonged period of time.

The other goal of the mission was to survive while flying under those conditions in such a small scale aircraft. Flying alone is another challenge in itself, as the pilot has nobody else to rely on but himself.
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Making History


As the mission was underway, it appeared to be going well. In the first day and a half, spanning from May 15 to 16, Cooper was able to orbit Earth once. He made history by becoming the first person to ever sleep while in space.

But space missions are so complex, that so much can go wrong at any moment. Suddenly, Cooper faced a much bigger challenge than he could imagine.
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Taking Control


Just as Cooper was re-entering the atmosphere, the space craft’s automatic piloting system began to malfunction. This is when Cooper’s flying experience really came into play. He took over the controls of Faith 7, and he managed to make a perfect manual landing on board an aircraft carrier that was waiting in the ocean.

It appeared that the mission was officially over, but Cooper was not telling everyone the full story.
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Lots of Pics


Part of the mission was to gather information, and taking pictures was a big part of that. At some point while in space, Cooper communicated to NASA that he was taking a lot of pictures. He even specified the amount, saying “I’m up to 5,245 now.”

While these images are certainly incredible to look at, there was more behind them than just admiring the beauty of our planet. Cooper had other thoughts as well.
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Special Camera


Prior to the mission, Cooper was provided with a state of the art camera, which had the ability to detect magnetic discrepancies on the surface of Earth. The goal was to be able to discover soviet nuclear bases, as well as submarines located underneath the water.

The camera was able to discover some very interesting findings. Some of these, Cooper decided to keep to himself for a very long time.
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Strange Findings


As Cooper was orbiting Earth within Faith 7, he was taking shots with his high-tech camera, and the equipment uncovered some strange aberrations. For the most part, they were scattered along the region of the Caribbean.

A closer look at the data suggested they were way too small to be nuclear sites. Despite not knowing what his findings even were, Cooper was smart enough to chart them from within the small confines of the spacecraft.
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Solo Mission


Cooper was highly intrigued to discover what these aberrations really were. An adventurer by nature, he was determined to get to the root of the findings when he returned safely to planet Earth. But for whatever reason, the astronaut decided to pursue this mission on his own.

He never disclosed these findings to NASA or the Department of Defense, leaving him by himself to chase down the locations. It was a gutsy and very questionable decision.
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Research


When Cooper finally landed safely, he took it upon himself to use the resources at his disposal to get the answers he was looking for. He found out that the locations he charted on his map, were all located around old routes used for trading, where Spanish ships had normally travelled.

While he had no conclusive evidence, he felt there was a strong enough geographic correlation to infer there was a connection here.
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Finding Meaning


Cooper’s research of the Spanish trading routes, led him to believe that his discoveries were in fact the locations of various shipwrecks. We conducted his research in more depth, in order to get as much information as possible about these potential ships.

His nature was always to gather as much data as he possibly could prior to taking action. He wanted to know the meaning of these ships and what he had found from space.
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More Missions


The nature of Cooper’s job at NASA demanded to spend much of his time training for additional missions. He later was among the crew of the Gemini 5 mission. The training for that mission alone was intense. Cooper and the crew ultimately spent 190 hours in space, which was a big deal in those days.

The preparations were complex, both from physical and psychological standpoints. So Cooper neglected his findings for many years until he realized he was running short on time.
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Help from a Friend


Cooper was not getting any younger, and then he was also diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He realized that he had to take action, if he didn’t want his discovery to go to waste. His curiosity continued to soar. So he contacted his friend, Darrell Miklos, who had experience searching for rocket debris.

He figured his expertise could be exactly what he needed to help Cooper finally solve this mystery once and for all.
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Continuing the Quest


Unfortunately, Cooper passed away in 2004. Luckily, he had already handed off his map to Miklos, who could now continue his friend’s quest in search of answers. Miklos was curious as well. What exactly were these locations that Cooper had seen from space?

Were they shipwrecks, or was there more to this story than meets the eye? He set out to find out, as he knew it was important to Cooper, who chose him of all people to help him out.
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Discovery Channel


Miklos believed that Cooper was telling the truth. After all, what reason could he possibly have for making something like this up? The Discovery Channel jumped on board the opportunity to turn this into a television show, and they called it Cooper’s Treasure.

With a healthy budget in his hands, Miklos took to the map, in pursuit of Cooper’s charted locations. The adventure was officially underway, and the excitement was certainly growing immensely.
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What did they find?


As the crew set sail to reach one of Cooper’s locations from his map, they prepared their equipment and took a dive toward the ocean floor. As they relentlessly searched the first location, the anticipation was mounting.

What would they find? Would Cooper’s theories be confirmed, or would he be proven wrong? Could these aberrations have simply been caused by natural occurrences, or was there something there at the bottom of the ocean?
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First Discovery


As the crew continued to dive through the ocean near a location on the map, they soon discovered a giant anchor. They were obviously excited to confirm that Cooper’s map was no hoax, and they pulled the giant metal anchor up to the surface.

Once onboard their ship, they began analysis of what they had found. They quickly realized that the anchor was from a ship that sank around the same time that Christopher Columbus was exploring the region.
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Continuing to Explore


The findings gave added momentum to Miklos’ expedition. By the middle months of 2017, he and his crew managed to travel to another four locations on Cooper’s map. At each location, they were successful in finding some type of evidence of a shipwreck.

It’s not every day that you get a treasure map of validated locations of shipwrecks. And with several hundred more locations, who knows what types of treasures Miklos will find.
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Mission Continued


Miklos has said that he plans to continue along with Cooper’s map in search of other shipwrecks. In a conversation he had with Newsweek, he said: “I hear Gordon all the time in the back of my head: ‘You’re on the right trail!’”

But with so many locations left to explore, Miklos understands it will take a lot of time and money to reach them all. Still, he plans to continue Cooper’s mission in search of some long lost treasures from history.
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Cooper’s Treasures


With so many map locations left to discover, nobody knows how long Miklos will continue to pursue this mission. It’s incredibly complex, and it would likely take many years if not decades to reach them all. Regardless, Cooper’s goal has already been achieved.

The map he sketched during his solo mission in space has been put to use. And whether it is Miklos or someone else who continues this quest, Cooper’s theories have already been confirmed.