Launch and the eight-day challenge

Gemini 5 launched from Launch Complex 19 on a Titan II GLV, carrying Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad toward the first American mission planned to last eight days.

The flight’s central test was endurance: the crew, spacecraft and fuel-cell power system had to remain reliable far longer than on previous American missions.

The launch vehicle placed Gemini 5 into orbit, beginning a programme of experiments designed to prepare NASA for lunar flight.