Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr. (1927–2004) was the last Mercury astronaut to fly, completing 22 orbits aboard Faith 7 in May 1963, the longest Mercury mission. An Air Force fighter pilot and test pilot selected as one of the Mercury Seven in 1959, he was forced to perform a fully manual re-entry when an electrical failure disabled his automatic systems, achieving a remarkably accurate splashdown. He later commanded Gemini 5 (1965), setting a new space endurance record.