Eight days in orbit

With the power-system warning under control, Cooper and Conrad continued the long-duration programme, alternating sleep, experiments, photography and spacecraft checks.

Gemini 5 carried seventeen experiments. The crew photographed Earth, evaluated the effects of prolonged weightlessness and demonstrated that a spacecraft could support a mission approaching the duration needed for a lunar expedition.

The flight doubled the previous American endurance record. Its engineering lessons mattered as much as the headline number: reliable power, thermal control, food, waste management and crew workload all had to work together.

◉ Real photograph