Gordon Cooper (1927–2004) was an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, and one of the original seven astronauts in Project Mercury, the first human space program of the United States. Born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, Cooper earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He piloted the longest and final Mercury spaceflight in 1963, and in 1965, he commanded Gemini 5, demonstrating that astronauts could survive in space for the length of time necessary to go from Earth to the Moon and back.

Cooper reported several UFO sightings throughout his career. In 1951, while flying over West Germany, he observed a cluster of metallic, saucer-shaped objects. Later, as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base, he claimed that a saucer-like craft landed on a dry lake bed and was filmed by his crew. Cooper believed that these sightings were evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence and testified before the United Nations to encourage serious investigation into the UFO phenomenon.​