August 21, 1965 – Gemini 5 launches into space

Gordon Cooper was one of the original seven Mercury program U.S. astronauts. He flew on the Mercury 9 (Faith 7) and Gemini 5 NASA missions.

Wikipedia says:

“Two years later, on August 21, 1965, Cooper flew as command pilot of Gemini 5 on an eight-day, 120-orbit mission with Pete Conrad. The two astronauts established a new space endurance record by traveling a distance of 3,312,993 miles (5,331,745 km) in 190 hours, 56 minutes, proving that astronauts could survive in space for the length of time necessary to go from the earth to the moon and back. Cooper was the first astronaut to make a second orbital flight, and later served as backup command pilot for Gemini 12 and backup commander of Apollo 10.”