85. [Gemini V] COVER OF LIFE: Earth horizon over Baja California Gordon Cooper or Pete Conrad, 21-29 August 1965 Printed 1965. Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image S-65-45763]. With "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse, numbered "NASA S-65-45763" in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas). 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.) Historical context This splendid photograph, featured on the cover of LIFE Magazine (September 24, 1965, Most Remarkable Photos from Earth Ever Recorded), captures a breathtaking view of Baja California, Mexico, with the Gulf of California visible to the left, nose of spacecraft in the foreground. As flight durations grew longer, Gemini V astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad circled the Earth 120 times over 190 hours and 55 minutes. Their spacecraft reached an apogee of 215 miles and a perigee of 100 miles, providing more time for photography and offering spectacular points of view. They returned with dramatic colour photographs of our planet's surface, showcasing Earth in unprecedented detail. This photograph was taken using a hand-held, NASA-modified 70mm Hasselblad 500C camera with an 80mm lens and MS Ektachrome thin base film (ASA 64). "The colour of many of the [Gemini photographs] is outstanding and ground resolution remarkably high. [...] Photos of shorelines, river courses, and details never before seen by Man are included. [...] These photographs and other Gemini experiments are the beginning of a vast increase in man's useful knowledge of Earth and its environment." — Robert Gilruth, Director of the Manned Spacecraft Centre (NASA SP-129, preface) Literature LIFE magazine, 24 September 1965, cover