Gordon Cooper Edwards AFB landing-film claim

Record summary

What happened Astronaut Gordon Cooper later said a camera crew at Edwards filmed a wingless craft landing on a dry lakebed and that he viewed the developed film before sending it through military channels. Camera operators James Bittick and Jack Gettys were named in retellings, but the film has not surfaced and Cooper was not an eyewitness to the landing itself. Evidence Cooper’s later first-person account of receiving and viewing film is central; the film and contemporaneous report are absent. Explanations considered Misremembered test footage, an experimental aircraft or an embellished later narrative are possible. What remains uncertain Without the film or securely dated documents, the account cannot be independently checked. Primary source Gordon Cooper Edwards AFB landing-film claim — Wikipedia