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Gemini 5 (officially Gemini V) was a 1965 crewed spaceflight in NASA's Project Gemini. It was the third crewed Gemini flight, the eleventh crewed American spaceflight (including two X-15 flights above ), and the nineteenth human spaceflight of all time. It was also the first time an American crewed space mission held the world record for duration, set on August 26, 1965, by breaking the Soviet Union's previous record set by Vostok 5 in 1963. This record might have been one day longer; however, Gemini V was cut short, due to the approach of Hurricane Betsy. Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin (Houston CAPCOM) Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom (Cape CAPCOM) James A. McDivitt (Houston CAPCOM) Mass: Perigee: Apogee: Inclination: 32.61° Period: 89.59 min REP (Rendezvous Evaluation Pod) sub-satellite: On August 21, 1965, at 16:07:15 UTC, the REP was released into orbit from the Gemini 5 spacecraft. Gemini 5 doubled the U.S. space-flight record of the Gemini 4 mission to eight days, the length of time it would take to fly to the Moon, land and return. This was possible due to new fuel cells that generated enough electricity to power longer missions, a pivotal innovation for future Apollo flights, instead of the chemical batteries used on previous crewed spacecraft. Cooper and Conrad were to have made a practice space rendezvous with a "pod" deployed from the spacecraft, but problems with the electrical supply forced a switch to a simpler "phantom rendezvous," whereby the Gemini craft maneuvered to a predetermined position in space. Command Pilot and Mercury veteran Gordon Cooper was the first person to fly two Earth orbital missions. He and Conrad took high-resolution photographs for the United States Department of Defense, but problems with the fuel cells and maneuvering system forced the cancellation of several other experiments. The astronauts found themselves marking time in orbit, and Conrad later lamented that he had not brought along a book. On-board medical tests, however, continued to show the feasibility of longer flights.

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Gemini 5

List of spaceflight records

Records and firsts in spaceflight are broadly divided into crewed and uncrewed categories. Records involving animal spaceflight have also been noted in earlier experimental flights, typically to establish the feasibility of sending humans to outer space. The notion of "firsts" in spaceflight follows a long tradition of firsts in aviation, but is also closely tied to the Space Race. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union and the United States competed to be the first countries to accomplish various feats.

Space rendezvous

A space rendezvous (ˈrɒndeɪvuː) is a set of orbital maneuvers during which two spacecraft, one of which is often a space station, arrive at the same orbit and approach to a very close distance (e.g. within visual contact). Rendezvous requires a precise match of the orbital velocities and position vectors of the two spacecraft, allowing them to remain at a constant distance through orbital station-keeping. Rendezvous may or may not be followed by docking or berthing, procedures which bring the spacecraft into physical contact and create a link between them.

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