After the initial success in spaceflight via the Mercury missions, the U.S. began planning for the longer-duration moon flights. A new fuel cell was developed that would last the necessary eight days of travel to the moon, but whether the spacecraft’s human components would last that long was a question that would first began to be answered with the launch of Gemini V.

On this day, August 29, in 1965 the Gemini V spacecraft, piloted by Charles “Pete” Conrad, Jr. and L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. in his second spaceflight, splashed down after a successful mission into the Atlantic ocean.

Unlike the modern, relatively roomy space shuttles of today, the cabin section of the Gemini ship was about the size of the front seat of the Volkswagen Beetle. The two men sat and slept (insofar as they could) side by side for the entire eight-day duration. Conrad, the pilot, was only half joking when he dubbed the mission “Eight days in a garbage can.”