Gemini 5

Gordo Cooper and Pete Conrad give America the lead in the space race

 

Prime Crew: Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper (Command Pilot)

Charles P. "Pete" Conrad, Jr. (Pilot)

Backup Crew: Neil A. Armstrong (Command Pilot)

Elliot M. See, Jr. (Pilot)

August 21, 1965

120 Orbits

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The goal for Gemini 5 was to spend 8 days in orbit, giving the United States the lead as far as time spent in space, as well as approximating the length of time an Apollo mission was estimated to require in space. So Gordo Cooper and Pete Conrad, the prime crew for the mission, came up with the Conestoga Wagon "8 Days or Bust" design above, to evoke the spirit of the pioneer settlers of the Old West. Then someone said, "Well, what if you don't go all 8 days?" So the patch was modified a little (below) The mission will also test Earth-orbit rendezvous techniques. NASA Photos.

  

 

  

Meet the Prime Crew of Gemini 5, Pilot Pete Conrad and Command Pilot Gordo Cooper. Conrad, a member of the New 9, is on his first mission, while Original 7 member Cooper is on his second, after ending Project Mercury on a high note with his spectacular Mercury-Atlas 9/Faith 7 flight. They are both fun-loving guys who like to race cars-and they are also two of the very best pilots in the program. NASA Photo.

 

 

Pete (in the water) and Gordo (not in the water) practice water egress maneuvers with recovery swimmers in the months before the flight. When every flight was supposed to end in the water, astronauts had to be capable of taking care of themselves not only in the floating spacecraft, but also on inflatable rafts and floating in life vests, as shown here. They could have splashed down anywhere on 2/3 of the Earth's surface if something went wrong, and recovery forces might be a while in coming. Of course, Navy guys like Pete Conrad had seen all of this before. NASA Photo.

 

  

After computer problems and weather cause the original August 19th launch to be rescheduled, Gordo and Pete share a few laughs with the guys in the suit trailer on the morning of the rescheduled launch, August 21st. Putting two of the most outgoing and colorful guys in the astronaut corps on the same Gemini mission must have made for a pretty interesting training environment. NASA Photo. 

 

 

Strapped in aboard Gemini 5 atop a fully-fueled Titan II missile, Gordo (left) and Pete know that no matter how much fun they have been having, this is serious business in the final hours of the count. These two are always ready with a smile and a joke on the ground, but they are also experienced test pilots who are all business when they're in the cockpit. NASA Photo. 

 

9:00 AM EST, August 21, 1965. Gemini 5 lifts off on a long, important mission. There will be no headline-grabbing spacewalk on this mission, but the tasks performed by Gordo Cooper and Pete Conrad on Gemini 5 will be vital steps on America's journey to the Moon. NASA Photo.

 

 

For the first time in the history of American space flight, NASA was able to recover a relatively intact rocket stage from a space launch. Gemini 5's Titan II first stage survived staging (a feat in itself, considering the Titan II's "fire-in-the-hole" staging process, wherein the second stage engine ignited before the first stage was even severed, which sometimes just blew the first stage to pieces), re-entry, and unassisted splashdown. (No parachutes! It just plopped into the water!) Recovery was made by the U.S.S. Dupont 450 miles northeast of the Cape. NASA Photo.  

 

  

The Straits of Gibraltar, as seen from Gemini 5, 217 miles up. NASA Photo.

 

  

Pete Conrad has a moment of free time during the long, grueling mission, so he holds out the camera and takes this picture of himself, bathed in the intense, unfiltered sunlight of space. By this time, the rendezvous planned with the Rendezvous Evaluation Pod (REP) Gemini 5 ejected into space earlier has been cancelled due to problems with the new Gemini fuel cell system, although Gordo and Pete are still able to fly a simulated rendezvous with an imaginary Agena Target Vehicle the next day. Pete and Gordo are also tasked with photographing the Earth below as much as possible, and they have many other scientific and medical experiments to conduct. Pete and Gordo get along well, but spending eight days aboard a Gemini capsule is kind of like spending eight days in a small car. NASA Photo.

 

 

By the fifth day of the flight, the OAMS maneuvering control system has become sluggish, and over the next couple of days they will lose a couple of maneuvering thrusters. As the control systems begin to run out of propellant and function erratically-or, in the case of those two thrusters, fail altogether-Mission Control in Houston (shown) orders Gemini 5 to head home on the eighth day. NASA Photo. 

 

 

Gemini 5's computer fires the retro rockets early (someone fed it the wrong command from the ground), causing Gordo and Pete to abandon the planned demonstration of the controlled-re-entry guidance system, and they end up landing some 91 miles short of the planned splashdown area. Despite this, the recovery team is on the scene quickly. Here, a diver leaps from the Navy Sea King helicopter to join the recovery effort. At this point, another swimmer has secured the flotation collar to Gemini 5, but Gordo and Pete have not yet opened their hatches. NASA Photo.

 

On the way to the carrier, Pete Conrad takes a moment to look out the Sea King's window and reflect on his first space mission. Gemini 5 was one for the books. NASA Photo.

 

  

Safely aboard the prime recovery vessel, the carrier U.S.S. Lake Champlain, Pete and Gordo seem reinvigorated. After 7 days, 22 hours, 55 minutes and 14 seconds in the spacecraft (longer than that if you count the countdown and the 89 minutes between splashdown and landing on the carrier), Gordo Cooper has grown a thick beard, and Pete can't resist a gleeful tug at it. NASA Photo.

 

 

Pete Conrad and Gordo Cooper, two of the coolest characters in the astronaut corps of cool characters, are about to head in for their post-flight medical exams and debriefings. Gemini 5, despite a few problems, was a valuable step on the long road to the Moon, and the United States can now claim the lead in the space race with the Soviets. Everyone but the Marine guy at right is all smiles on the Lake Champlain, including Pete Conrad with his soon-to-be-world-famous gap-toothed grin. Pete would go on to command Gemini 11, and land on the Moon as Commander of the second manned lunar-landing mission, Apollo 12, and would close out his storied space-flight career in 1973 after commanding the first Skylab mission. Gordo Cooper would stay in the program, as commander of the backup crews of Gemini 12 and Apollo 10. But after Al Shepard returns to flying status and is given command of the mission that, by the crew rotation, would have been Gordo Cooper's to command, Cooper would leave NASA. Gemini 5, although nobody could have known it at the time, was to be his last space flight. NASA Photo.