USS Dupont was the closest ship for recovery of Gemini 5. Navy divers from the destroyer recovered the astronauts and transferred them via helicopter to USS Lake Champlain.

Astronauts LCDR Conrad and LTC Cooper walk across the deck of USS Lake Champlain as the press and crewmembers watch.

LCDR Conrad was an avid pilot in college and earned a degree in aeronautical engineering at Princeton in 1953, at which point he joined the Navy. He excelled in flight school, became a carrier pilot, and a flight instructor/test pilot at Patuxent River Naval Air Station before being selected as an astronaut.

LTC Cooper received a degree in chemistry from the University of Washington. He became a naval aviator in 1953, serving at Jacksonville, Florida, Patuxent River, Maryland and Miramar, California before becoming an astronaut.

With the help of the crew of USS Lake Champlain and representatives of McDonnell Douglas, the command module of Gemini 5 is lifted onto the aircraft carrier.

The Mercury space program began in 1958 with the purpose of putting a man in orbit around the earth. On 5 May, 1961 CDR Alan Shepard became the first American in space, a trip lasting 15 minutes and 28 seconds.

Edward White became the first man to conduct a spacewalk on June 3rd, 1965, as depicted in this artwork.