Project Gemini - Missions

Missions

There were 2 unmanned Gemini flights in 1964 and 1965, followed by 10 manned flights in 1965 and 1966. All were launched by Titan II launch vehicles. Highlights of the Gemini program achieved its objectives in support of the Apollo program:

• Edward H. White became the first American to make an extravehicular activity (EVA, or "space walk"), on June 3, 1965 during Gemini 4.
• Gemini 5 demonstrated the 8-day endurance necessary for the Apollo lunar mission with the first use of fuel cells to generate its electrical power.
• Gemini 6A and 7 accomplished the first space rendezvous in December 1965, and Gemini 7 set a 14-day endurance record.
• Gemini 8 achieved the first space docking with an unmanned Agena target vehicle.
• Gemini 11 set a manned Earth orbital altitude record of 739.2 nautical miles (1,369.0 km) in September 1966, using the propulsion system of its Agena target vehicle. This record still stands as of 2011.

• Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin on Gemini 12 became the first space traveller to prove that useful work could be done outside the spacecraft without life-threatening exhaustion.

Rendezvous in orbit is not a straightforward maneuver. Should a spacecraft increase its speed to catch up with another, the result would be that it is going to a higher and slower orbit and the distance thereby increases. The right procedure would actually be to slow down and go to a lower orbit first and then later to increase speed and go to the same orbit as the other. To practice these maneuvers special rendezvous and docking simulators were built for the astronauts.