re: Gordo's gone...
He's the first one I really remember.
My aunt in 1963, at the beach, showed us a picture of him in his Mercury spacesuit and I also was aware of a comic strip hero Dan Cooper (and later of another one, Flash Gordon), so Gordon Cooper had to be some kind of astronaut!
Besides, even if he wrote all kinds of strange things, he did perfom very well in his 2 missions.
Raoul