What was the Gemini Program? - National Air and Space Museum
Sep 22, 2022 · The Gemini program sent two-astronaut spacecraft into Earth orbit. The missions helped NASA understand and master the challenges of spacewalking, rendezvous and docking, and long-duration spaceflight. Explore some of the key accomplishments of the Gemini program below. The Launch Vehicle and Spacecraft.
Gemini program - National Air and Space Museum
Gemini Program. Project Gemini took place between the Mercury program, which was the United States' first human spaceflight program, and the Apollo program, which put the first human on the Moon. Mercury sent astronauts to space for longer periods of time than previously. This allowed NASA to learn more about space's effects on the human body ...
The World’s First Space Rendezvous
Dec 15, 2015 · The Gemini VII spacecraft was the heaviest ever launched, a bit over 3,636 kg (8,000 lbs.), in part because of the extra food and water supply, and in part because the capsule was retrofitted for a transponder to return the radar signal from VI-A. Working long hours, pad crews cleaned up the launch damage and re-erected the other vehicle.
Spinning Out of Control: Gemini VIII’s Near-Disaster
Mar 16, 2021 · Fifty-five years ago, on March 16, 1966, the Gemini VIII astronauts made the world’s first space docking, quickly followed by the first life-threatening, in-flight emergency in the short history of the U.S. human spaceflight program. Gemini VIII, joined to its Agena target vehicle, began spinning and gyrating; when the astronauts undocked ...
Almost Blind and Completely Exhausted: Gene Cernan’s Disastrous …
Jun 4, 2021 · Cernan flew on Gemini IX-A with Tom Stafford as his commander, part of a series of short missions with the two-astronaut Gemini spacecraft in 1966. These flights aimed to develop experience in EVAs and in rendezvous and docking, techniques needed if the U.S. was going to land on the Moon by the end of the decade.
Gemini 7 spacecraft interior | National Air and Space Museum
Gemini 7 Spacecraft Interior. Download Image. Fish-eye camera view of the interior of the Gemini 7 spacecraft. ID#:
Failure to Launch: The Heart-Stopping Pad Shutdown of Gemini VI-A
Dec 12, 2020 · Photo taken by astronaut Thomas Stafford of Gemini VII from inside Gemini VI as the two spacecraft rendezvoused on December 15, 1965. There was a coda to the close call on the twelfth. Thirteen-and-a-half months later, three of their colleagues, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, would die in a launch-pad fire inside the Apollo 1 ...
Gemini Heat Shield, Ablated | National Air and Space Museum
Gemini Heat Shield, Ablated. A heat shield protected the two-man Gemini spacecraft against the enormous heat of reentry into the atmosphere beginning at a velocity of more than 27,500 kilometers (17,000 miles) per hour. Like those of other early human spacecraft, Gemini's heat shield derived from ballistic-missile warhead technology.
Capsule, Gemini 3 | National Air and Space Museum
Capsule, Gemini 3. Gemini 3 was the first manned mission of Project Gemini, which aimed to launch a series of two-man spacecraft to test long-duration missions, rendezvous and docking between two space vehicles, and EVA or "spacewalking." Command pilot Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom and pilot John Young were launched from Cape Kennedy on March 23 ...
Motor, Rocket, Solid Fuel, TE-385, Retro, Gemini
Collection Objects. Motor, Rocket, Solid Fuel, TE-385, Retro, Gemini. Usage Conditions May Apply. This is a Gemini retro rocket. It provided a means of slowing down the two-person Gemini Earth orbiting U.S. spacecraft to permit its reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Four of the rockets fired in ripple fashion upon a signal from the crew or by an ...