Oklahoma Journeys
Week of August 23, 2008
Gemini 5
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The patch worn by the crew of the Gemini 5 space capsule in August of 1965 showed a covered wagon with the slogan “8 Days or Bust” on its side. Symbolic of his native state, Shawnee’s Gordon Cooper was making his second trip into space on that flight and would set the stage for Americans to fly to the moon and back. That’s the story on Oklahoma Journeys from the Oklahoma History Center.
From the Oklahoma History Center, this is Oklahoma Journeys. I’m Michael Dean.
From the first days of the U.S. space program, America trailed the Russians. The Russians launched the first satellite into orbit, launched the first man into orbit, had the longest missions; every step of the way they led, and we followed, but that changed on August 21, 1965. The man in space program was designed to send men to the moon, but in simple steps with each step leading to the next. The program began with the one man Mercury space capsule. That simply proved that we could launch a man into space and return him to the ground safely. The Gemini program followed in the mid-1960s. Gemini was a two-man capsule with missions designed to do, in simple steps, all the things required to send men to the moon, including stretching flight duration, rendezvousing with second space craft, and walks in space.
On August 21, 1965, the Gemini 5 mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center, carrying Charles P. Conrad and Shawnee Oklahoma native, Gordon Cooper. The two were to remain in space for a record breaking 8 days and perform a rendezvous with an instrument they were carrying on board. Following the successful launch, the first three orbits were good. Then on the fourth orbit, the crew noticed a big drop in the pressure in the power supply oxygen tank. Engineers on the ground used the next three orbits to determine that in spite of the pressure drop the power supply would continue to work.
Just before re-entry, Cooper discovered that engineers had made a mistake while entering data for the landing on the onboard computer. If he didn’t correct the mistake, they would land hundreds maybe thousands of miles from their intended landing area. Cooper manually reentered the data, then landed the Gemini 5 himself.
On August 29, 1965, the Gemini 5 returned to the Earth, or actually the Atlantic Ocean, safe and sound. Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad had traveled more than 3 million two hundred thousand miles. Gemini 5 doubled the space-flight record of the previous Gemini 4 mission to eight days, the length of time it would take to fly a mission to the moon 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. Mercury veteran Gordon Cooper was the first person to travel on orbital missions twice. He and Conrad took high-resolution photographs for the Defense Department, among other things. Conrad, who had a reputation for frequently having a punch line on hand, called the mission "Eight days in a garbage can." (The garbage can referring to the small size of the Gemini capsule, which was about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.)
You can learn more about Oklahomans in the manned space program by visiting the Oklahoma History Center. You’ll see a display featuring the actual Gemini 6 capsule that Oklahoman Tom Stafford flew in December of 1965. The Oklahoma History Center is located on NE 23rd Street, just east of the state capitol in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma Journeys is a production of the Oklahoma History Center, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing our state’s past. I’m Michael Dean.