The Epitome of Cool: Neil Armstrong and David Scott, 1966

Neil Armstrong and David Scott in the Gemini VIII capsule, after splashdown, March 16, 1966. Credit: NASA.

So, you’ve just endured a harrowing experience where your orbiting spacecraft has gone wildly out of control. You somehow — while undergoing the incredible, vertigo-inducing G-forces of your spinning spacecraft — figure out a plan, undock your spacecraft from another spacecraft and abort your original mission.

Six and a half orbits and ten hours and 44 minutes after you’ve thunderously launched into space, you violently re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and splash down in a pitching ocean. Obviously, you have to throw up, and so does your crewmate. But there’s just one air sickness bag.

But by the time the rescue crew has arrived you’ve donned your sunglasses and look as cool as a cucumber.

That’s Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott’s experience during the Gemini 8 mission.

The epitome of cool.