#gemini 7

"An overall view of the Manned Spacecraft Center's Mission Control Center, during the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Gemini-7 spaceflight."

Date: December 7, 1965

from this interview

I will never get over how cute him and Marilyn were.

She was so supportive of what he wanted to do. At the time of that press conference, he had spent more time in space than any other human. Including a two week Gemini mission while Marilyn was 8 months pregnant, being the first person to launch on a Saturn V, and the first person to go to the moon. After Apollo 13 she decided she couldn't handle anymore missions and he respected it.

Out of the first 30 astronauts, there were only 7 who stayed married, and he was one of them. When talking about their marriages and what they went through, the Apollo-era astronaut wives offen say things like "Who could ever compete with the Moon? I was lucky if I could come in second." But this is one of the only times any of them were Actually in Direct Competition with the Moon. Not only that, she put herself in that position with complete confidence he would make the right choice. And he did. He immediately changed course with his answer, he didn't even have to consider it. Marilyn was never truly in competition with the Moon, because when faced with a choice between the two, Jim never would have made a different decision.