page_title: Pete Conrad
section_title: Project Gemini
hierarchical_section_title: Pete Conrad / NASA career / Project Gemini
caption_attribution_description: Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr. looks out of the helicopter window after recovery from his spacecraft after the Gemini 5 splashdown. Image #&#160;: S65-46622
context_page_description: Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr., was an American NASA astronaut, aeronautical engineer, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and commanded the Apollo 12 space mission, on which he became the third man to walk on the Moon. Conrad was selected in NASA's second astronaut class in 1962.
  Before becoming an astronaut, Conrad earned his bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Princeton University—being the first Ivy League astronaut—and joined the U.S. Navy. In 1954 he received his naval aviator wings, served as a fighter pilot and, after graduating from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, as a project test pilot. In 1959 he was an astronaut candidate for Project Mercury.
  He set an eight-day space endurance record in 1965 along with his Command Pilot Gordon Cooper on his first spaceflight, Gemini 5. Later, Conrad commanded Gemini 11 in 1966, and Apollo 12 in 1969. After Apollo, he commanded Skylab 2, the first crewed Skylab mission, in 1973. On the mission, he and his crewmates repaired significant launch damage to the Skylab space station. For this, President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978.
context_section_description: Conrad joined NASA as part of the second group of astronauts, known as the New Nine, on September 17, 1962. Regarded as one of the best pilots in the group, he was among the first of his group to be assigned a Gemini mission. As pilot of Gemini 5 he, along with his commander Gordon Cooper, set a new space endurance record of eight days. The duration of the Gemini 5 flight was actually 7 days 22 hours and 55 minutes, surpassing the then-current Russian record of five days. Eight days was the time required for the first crewed lunar landing missions. Conrad facetiously referred to the Gemini 5 capsule as a flying garbage can.
  Conrad tested many spacecraft systems essential to the Apollo program. He was also one of the smallest of the astronauts, 5 feet 6½ inches (1.69 meters) tall, so he found the confinement of the Gemini capsule less onerous than his Commander Gordon Cooper, who played American football, did. He was then named Commander of the Gemini 8 backup crew, and later Commander of Gemini 11 with pilot Richard Gordon. Gemini 11 docked with an Agena target vehicle immediately after achieving orbit. Such a maneuver was an engineering and flight test similar to what the Apollo Command Module (CM) and Lunar Module (LM) would later be required to do. Also, the Gemini 11 flight holds the distinction of being the highest-apogee earth orbit ever, reaching an apogee of 1,369 kilometres (851 mi).
caption: Conrad following his Gemini 5 flight
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