In its early formative stages, Betsy forced the shortening of NASA's Gemini 5 mission by one orbit due to the tropical storm's forecasted track over the initial target splashdown zone near Grand Turk Island. As a result, the spacecraft, which had been orbiting the Earth since August 1965, had its target splashdown zone shifted northward to an area of the Atlantic Ocean well east of Jacksonville, Florida, away from the storm's projected path. In Martinique, the precursor tropical depression caused marginal rainfall and light gusts, and no damage was reported. In Sint Maarten, winds and their associated gusts peaked at for several hours on August 28. Throughout the rest of the Windward Islands, gusts peaked at 40 mph (65 km/h), though the resultant wind damage was marginal. As the hurricane was passing near the southeastern Bahamas, high swells were reported along the northern coast of Hispaniola, though no damage ensued.