The Explorers' Club, № DCCLXXXVII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 55th Anniversary of Gemini VII, Part I
4 December 1965: Gemini VII lifted off from Florida's Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, with Command Pilot Frank Borman & Pilot Jim Lovell aboard a Gemini spacecraft atop a Titan II G.L.V. rocket; this was the third & last Gemini endurance mission, aiming for fourteen days on orbit; Lovell became the first astronaut to doff his pressure suit; Borman & Lovell each brought along a book.

Commentary: Gemini IV set a new orbital endurance record of four days in June 1965; Gemini V set a new endurance record of eight days in August, two months later; Gemini VII sought to surpass both those records combined just a few months later, in December. What a time to be alive!

Bonus! Space Race Song o' Gemini VII
Cake, "The Distance" from Fashion Nugget (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.