Gordon was born on October 5, 1929, in Seattle, Washington. A Naval Aviator, NASA selected him to be an astronaut in 1963. Gordon’s first spaceflight was as Pilot of the three day Gemini XI mission in September 1966, along with Command Pilot Charles “Pete” Conrad. The two performed the first direct-ascent rendezvous with an Agena Target Vehicle and achieved a high-apogee earth orbit world record. In addition, Gordon performed two extravehicular activities during the flight which resulted in valuable lessons learned for future EVAs.

Gordon’s next flight was in 1969 when he became the Command Module pilot on Apollo 12. He was reunited with his Gemini XI counterpart Charles Conrad, Spacecraft Commander, along with Alan L. Bean who served as Lunar Module Pilot. During the mission, Gordon performed experiments and took pictures from the Yankee Clipper command module, while Conrad and Bean explored the lunar surface. Although Gordon’s dream was to walk on the moon, the closest he was able to get was a painting by Alan Bean of the three Apollo 12 crewmates standing on the lunar surface entitled “The Fantasy”.