Gemini

Project Summary

Project Gemini, with its 2-man capsule, allowed the United States to develop the techniques needed to do productive work in space and to link together two spacecraft. These two tasks were critical to the eventual success of the Apollo lunar landing missions. During the period of the mid-1960s, Gemini gave the United States a big lead over the Soviet Union in the race to the Moon. During spacewalks of increasing length and complexity, the astronauts learned to maneuver and perform routine tasks while floating outside the Gemini spacecraft. Beginning with the meeting in orbit of Geminis 6 and 7 in December 1965, the Gemini program also proved that rendezvousing and docking of spacecraft was a relatively easy task for the trained astronauts. Finally, the 14-day flight of Gemini 7 proved that men could survive in space long enough for a round trip flight to the Moon.

At the time of NASA's successful civilian Gemini program, the U.S. Air Force was planning for a military follow-on program called the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL). The purpose of MOL was to have a continuing manned presence in Earth orbit to collect reconnaisance photographs and other information. The program would have mated a Gemini capsule to a 42-foot long, 10-foot diameter laboratory module where the astronauts would live and work in space. The MOL would have been launched by Air Force Titan III booster rockets. Beginning in 1965, seventeen Air Force pilots were selected to be the MOL astronauts, but the program was canceled in 1969 for budgetary reasons. Eight of the seventeen MOL astronauts joined NASA (six flying various space shuttle missions), two were killed in military aircraft crashes, and one (Michael Adams) was killed in the only fatal crash of the X-15 program. The other six went on to other aerospace positions.

Missions Flown

                                 # of Flt.                          
  Date       Spacecraft Name     Crew Days      Mission/Payload     
-------- ----------------------- ---- ----  ------------------------
Manned Flight Details
04/08/64 Gemini 1                  -     -  Orbital test            
01/19/65 Gemini 2                  -     -  Orbital test            
03/23/65 Gemini 3                  2    -1  Earth orbit             
06/03/65 Gemini 4                  2     4  Earth orbit             
08/21/65 Gemini 5                  2     8  Earth orbit             
12/15/65 Gemini 6                  2     1  Gemini 7 rendezvous     
12/04/65 Gemini 7                  2    14  Gemini 6 rendezvous     
03/16/66 Gemini 8                  2     1  Agena docking           
06/03/66 Gemini 9                  2     3  ADTA rendezvous         
07/18/66 Gemini 10                 2     3  Agena docking           
09/12/66 Gemini 11                 2     3  Agena docking           
11/11/66 Gemini 12                 2     4  Agena docking           

11/03/66 Titan III-MOL             -     -  Unmanned test           

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Last Updated: January 1, 2003