part_of mercury-atlas 9
A test pilot is an aviator who flies new and modified ___MASK72___ in specific maneuvers , known as flight test techniques or FTTs , allowing the results to be measured and the ___MASK80___ to be evaluated . Leroy Gordon " Gordo " Cooper Jr . ( ___MASK65___ 6 , ___MASK64___  October 4 , 2004 ), ( Col , USAF ), better known as Gordon Cooper , was an American ___MASK91___ engineer , test pilot , United States Air Force pilot , and one of the seven original astronauts in ___MASK90___ , the first manned space program of the United States . The Southern ___MASK40___ , also known as the Antarctic ___MASK40___ or the Austral ___MASK40___ , comprises the southernmost waters of the World ___MASK40___ , generally taken to be south of 60 ° S latitude and encircling Antarctica . As such , it is regarded as the fourth - largest of the five principal oceanic divisions : smaller than the Pacific , Atlantic , and Indian Oceans but larger than the ___MASK68___ . This ___MASK40___ zone is where cold , northward flowing waters from the Antarctic mix with warmer subantarctic waters . ___MASK16___ , otherwise known as the world , is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the ___MASK34___ known to harbor life . It is the densest planet in the Solar ___MASK13___ and the largest of the four terrestrial planets . ___MASK56___ - Atlas 9 was the final manned space mission of the U . S . ___MASK56___ program , launched on May 15 , 1963 from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral , Florida . The spacecraft , named Faith 7 , completed 22 Earth orbits before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean , piloted by astronaut Gordon Cooper , then an Air Force major . The Atlas rocket was No . 130 - D , and the ___MASK56___ spacecraft was No . 20 . This mission marks the last time an American was launched alone to conduct an entirely solo orbital mission . ___MASK1___ , also collectively called America , encompass the totality of the continents of North America and South America . Together they make up most of ___MASK16___ ' s western hemisphere and comprise the " New World ". Conquistadors ( from ___MASK60___ or Spanish " conquistadores " " conquerors " ) is a term used to refer to the soldiers and explorers of the Spanish ___MASK73___ or the ___MASK60___ ___MASK73___ in a general sense . During the Age of Discovery , conquistadors sailed beyond ___MASK55___ to the Americas , Oceania , Africa and ___MASK89___ , conquering territory and opening trade routes . They colonized much of the world for Spain and Portugal in the 16th , 17th and 18th centuries . The ___MASK23___ is the second largest of the world ' s oceans with a total area of about . It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth ' s surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area . It separates the " Old World " from the " New World ". The contiguous United States consists of the 48 adjoining U . S . states plus Washington , D . ___MASK20___ . ( federal district ), on the continent of North America . The term excludes the non - contiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii and all off - shore United States territories and possessions , which include American Samoa , Guam , the Northern Mariana Islands , Puerto Rico , and the U . S . Virgin Islands . The ___MASK53___ ( USAF ) is the aerial ___MASK42___ service branch of the United States ___MASK84___ and one of the seven American uniformed services . Initially part of the ___MASK88___ , the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947 . It is the most recent branch of the U . S . military to be formed , and is the largest and one of the world ' s most technologically advanced air forces . The USAF articulates its core functions as Nuclear Deterrence Operations , Special Operations , Air Superiority , Global Integrated ISR , Space Superiority , Command and Control , Cyberspace Superiority , Personnel Recovery , Global Precision Attack , Building Partnerships , Rapid Global Mobility and Agile Combat Support . Brevard County is a county in the ___MASK45___ of Florida . As of the 2010 census , the ___MASK66___ was 543 , 376 , making it the 10th largest county in Florida . The official county seat has been located in Titusville since 1894 . Brevard County comprises the Palm ___MASK63___  Melbourne  Titusville , FL Metropolitan Statistical Area . It is located along the east Florida coast along the Atlantic Ocean . Cape Canaveral , from the Spanish " Cabo Cañaveral ", is a cape in Brevard County , Florida , United States , near the ___MASK18___ of the state ' s Atlantic coast . Known as Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973 , it lies east of Merritt Island , separated from it by the Banana River . It was discovered by the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León in 1513 . The ___MASK92___ is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent . It is bounded on the northeast , north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States , on the southwest and south by Mexico , and on the southeast by Cuba . The U . S . states of Alabama , Florida , Louisiana , Mississippi and Texas border the Gulf on the north , which are often referred to as the " Third Coast " in comparison with the U . S . Atlantic and Pacific coasts , or sometimes the " south coast ", in juxtaposition to the ___MASK5___ region being the " north coast ." One of the gulf ' s seven main areas is the ___MASK92___ basin . The ___MASK68___ is the smallest and shallowest of the world ' s five major oceans . The International Hydrographic ___MASK95___ ( IHO ) recognizes it as an ___MASK40___ , although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean ___MASK21___ or simply the Arctic ___MASK21___ , classifying it a mediterranean ___MASK21___ or an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean . Alternatively , the ___MASK68___ can be seen as the northernmost part of the all - encompassing World Ocean . The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost ___MASK86___ of Earth . The Arctic consists of the ___MASK68___ , adjacent seas , and parts of Alaska ( United States ), Canada , Finland , Greenland ( ___MASK51___ ), Iceland , Norway , Russia , and Sweden . Land within the Arctic region has seasonally varying snow and ice cover , with predominantly treeless permafrost - containing tundra . Arctic seas contain seasonal ___MASK21___ ice in many places . An ___MASK40___ ( the ___MASK21___ of classical antiquity ) is a body of saline water that composes much of a planet ' s hydrosphere . On Earth , an ___MASK40___ is one of the major conventional divisions of the World Ocean , which covers almost 71 % of its surface . These are , in descending order by area , the Pacific , Atlantic , Indian , Southern ( Antarctic ), and Arctic Oceans . The word " ___MASK21___ " is often used interchangeably with " ___MASK40___ " in American English but , strictly speaking , a ___MASK21___ is a body of saline water ( generally a division of the world ___MASK40___ ) partly or fully enclosed by land . A " metropolitan area ", sometimes referred to as a " metro area " or just " metro ", is a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less - populated surrounding territories , sharing ___MASK74___ , infrastructure , and housing . A metro area usually comprises multiple jurisdictions and municipalities : neighborhoods , townships , boroughs , cities , towns , exurbs , suburbs , counties , districts , states , and even nations like the eurodistricts . As social , economic and political institutions have changed , metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions . Metropolitan areas include one or more urban areas , as well as satellite cities , towns and intervening rural areas that are socio - economically tied to the urban core , typically measured by commuting patterns . Juan Ponce de León ( 1474  ___MASK82___ 1521 ) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador . He became the first Governor of ___MASK77___ by appointment of the Spanish crown . He led the first known European expedition to " La Florida ", which he named during his first voyage to the area in 1513 . Though in ___MASK14___ , he was supposedly searching for the Fountain of Youth , there is no contemporary evidence to support the story , which is likely a myth . The ___MASK22___ ( US ___MASK3___ , UK ___MASK3___ or and or ) is a polar region , specifically the region around the ___MASK16___ ' s South Pole , opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole . The ___MASK22___ comprises in the strict sense the continent of Antarctica and the island territories located on the ___MASK22___ Plate . In a broader sense the ___MASK22___ region include the ice shelves , waters , and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the ___MASK22___ Convergence , a zone approximately wide varying in latitude seasonally . The region covers some 20 % of the Southern Hemisphere , of which 5 . 5 % ( 14 million km ) is the surface area of the ___MASK22___ continent itself . All of the land and ice shelves south of 60 ° S latitude are administrated under the ___MASK22___ Treaty ___MASK13___ . In a biogeographic sense , the ___MASK22___ ecozone is one of eight ecozones of the ___MASK16___ ' s land surface . The ___MASK19___ River is a lagoon that lies between Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island in Brevard County , Florida in the United States . It is ___MASK86___ of the Indian River Lagoon ___MASK13___ , and connects at its south end to the Indian River ; it is the only ___MASK86___ of the lagoon ___MASK13___ not in the Intracoastal Waterway . It also has an outlet to the Atlantic Ocean via a lock into Port Canaveral . The lagoon includes salt marshes , mangrove swamps , seagrass beds , drift algae , oyster bars , tidal flats , and spoil islands , providing habitats for many marine species . These are brackish waters mixed of salt and fresh water ; waist deep with a soft bottom sand / grass . Commercial and recreational activities in the lagoon generate more than US $ 800 million annually for the local economy . ___MASK47___ , officially the Commonwealth of ___MASK47___ , is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent , the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands . It is the world ' s sixth - largest country by total area . The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea , Indonesia and East Timor to the north ; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north - east ; and New Zealand to the south - east . ___MASK47___ ' s capital is Canberra , and its largest urban area is Sydney . Alabama is a ___MASK45___ in the southeastern region of the United States . It is bordered by Tennessee to the north , Georgia to the east , Florida and the ___MASK92___ to the south , and Mississippi to the west . Alabama is the 30th - most extensive and the 24th - most populous of the U . S . states . At nearly , Alabama has one of the nation ' s longest navigable inland waterways . ___MASK90___ was the first human spaceflight program of the United States , running from 1958 through 1963 . An early highlight of the Space Race , its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely , ideally before the Soviet Union . Taken over from the U . S . Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA , it conducted twenty unmanned developmental flights ( some using animals ), and six successful flights by astronauts . The program , which took its name from the god of travel in Roman mythology , cost $ 277 million in 1965 US dollars , and involved the work of 2 million people . The astronauts were collectively known as the " Mercury Seven ", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a " 7 " by its pilot . Cuba , officially ___MASK79___ of Cuba , is a ___MASK98___ comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos . Cuba is located in the northern ___MASK32___ where the ___MASK32___ ___MASK21___ , the Gulf of Mexico , and the Atlantic Ocean meet . It is south of both the U . S . state of Florida and the Bahamas , west of Haiti , and north of Jamaica . Havana is the largest city and capital ; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey . Cuba is the largest island in the ___MASK32___ , with an area of , and the second - most populous after Hispaniola , with over 11 million inhabitants . The ___MASK29___ is the largest of the Earth ' s oceanic divisions . It extends from the ___MASK68___ in the north to the Southern Ocean ( or , depending on definition , to Antarctica ) in the south and is bounded by ___MASK89___ and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east . ___MASK89___ is Earth ' s largest and most populous continent , located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres and sharing the continental landmass of Eurasia with the continent of Europe . ___MASK89___ covers an area of , about 30 % of Earth ' s total land area and 8 . 7 % of the Earth ' s total surface area . The continent , which has long been home to the majority of the human population , was the site of many of the first civilizations . ___MASK89___ is notable for not only its overall large size and population , but also dense and large settlements as well as vast barely populated regions within the continent of 4 . 4 billion people . The Straits of Florida , Florida Straits , or Florida Strait is a strait located south - southeast of the North American mainland , generally accepted to be between the ___MASK92___ and the Atlantic Ocean , and between the Florida Keys ( U . S .) and Cuba . It is 150 km ( 93 mi ) wide at the narrowest point between Key West and the Cuban shore , and has been sounded to a depth of 6 , 000 feet . The strait carries the Florida Current , the beginning of the Gulf Stream , from the ___MASK92___ . Antarctica ( US ___MASK3___ , UK ___MASK3___ or ) is ___MASK16___ ' s southernmost continent . It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere , almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle , and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean . At , it is the fifth - largest continent . For comparison , Antarctica is nearly twice the size of ___MASK47___ . About 98 % of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages in thickness , which extends to all but the northernmost reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula . Florida ( Spanish for " land of flowers ") is a ___MASK45___ located in the southeastern region of the United States . It is bordered to the west by the ___MASK92___ , to the north by Alabama and Georgia , to the east by the Atlantic Ocean , and to the south by the Straits of Florida and Cuba . Florida is the 22nd most extensive , the 3rd most populous , and the 8th most densely populated of the U . S . states . Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the ___MASK45___ and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States . The Miami metropolitan area is Florida ' s most populous urban area . ___MASK83___ of Tallahassee is the ___MASK45___ capital .