On Aug. 29, 1965, two NASA astronauts returned from their record-breaking Gemini 5 mission. Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad spent eight days in Earth’s orbit, and for the first time, the United States set a world record for the duration of a crewed spaceflight.
Related: Gemini 5: Inside NASA’s First 8-Day Space Mission of 1965
The Gemini 5 mission launched on Aug. 21, 1965 atop a Titan II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. While in orbit, the astronauts were supposed to test rendezvous capabilities and maneuvers using a pod that deployed from their spacecraft. But due to an electrical problem, they had to cancel those plans along with several science experiments.
Pete Conrad later called the mission “eight days in a garbage can,” referring to the cramped quarters of the Gemini spacecraft.
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