Gemini

Project Gemini, 1965 and 1966: the first American spacewalk, the first rendezvous in orbit and the first docking. Ten crewed flights, two astronauts at a time, practising what Apollo would need.

24 photographs · 1962 to 1966 · Mission 3 of 14
24 photographs
The nose of Gemini 12 with the Earth's limb behind it, Gemini 12, 12 November 1966
Gemini 12 · 12 November 1966S66-63007

The Other Way

The same spacewalk, the camera pointed away from himself.
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Richard Gordon suited up before Gemini 11, Gemini 11, 12 September 1966
Gemini 11 · 12 September 1966S66-50719

Head Down Before Launch

His first spacewalk, the next day, was called off after thirty three minutes of a planned hundred and seven.
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Gemini 8 crew in the capsule, pararescuemen on the flotation collar, Gemini 8, 16 March 1966
Gemini 8 · 16 March 1966S66-18602

Down Early in the Pacific

The flight was meant to last three days. A misfiring thruster in orbit brought them home in less than eleven hours.
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A Gemini capsule model in Langley's 11-Inch Hypersonic Tunnel, Gemini, 18 June 1962
Gemini · 18 June 19621962-L-04893

Through the Tunnel Window

The first crew would not ride a Gemini home for almost three years.
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Navy divers on the Gemini 6 spacecraft after splashdown, Gemini 6A, 16 December 1965
Gemini 6A · 16 December 1965S65-61887

Divers on the Capsule

A day earlier this spacecraft had made the first rendezvous in space.
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John Young before the hatch closed on Gemini 3, Gemini 3, 23 March 1965
Gemini 3 · 23 March 1965S65-19228

Before the Hatch Closed

In a pocket of that suit was a corned beef sandwich, carried aboard without permission.
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Ed White outside Gemini 4 on the first American spacewalk, Gemini 4, 3 June 1965
Gemini 4 · 3 June 1965S65-30433

Twenty Three Minutes Outside

The gun in his hand fired compressed oxygen to steer him. It ran dry after about three of those minutes.
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A Gemini model in the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel at Langley, Gemini, 7 November 1962
Gemini · 7 November 1962LRC-1962-B701_P-08679

Gemini in the Wind Tunnel

The tunnel could drive air past a model at more than four times the speed of sound.
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Titan II rocket and erector in a time exposure, Gemini 10, 18 July 1966
Gemini 10 · 18 July 1966S66-42762

Many Towers, One Rocket

The rocket stood still. The tower beside it was recorded again and again on the same sheet of film as it swung away.
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First Titan II launch vehicle floodlit on its pad, Gemini, February 1964
Gemini · February 1964S64-13534

Nobody Aboard Yet

The capsule on top was a test article. Holes had been drilled through its heat shield so that it could not survive the way home.
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John Young and Michael Collins walking to Pad 19, Gemini 10, 18 July 1966
Gemini 10 · 18 July 1966S66-42754

Carrying Their Own Air

The white box in his hand is a portable air conditioner, cooling the suit until the spacecraft can take the job on.
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Star dunes of the Tifernine field in the Sahara, from Gemini 7, Gemini 7, 5 December 1965
Gemini 7 · 5 December 1965S65-63829

Star Dunes of the Sahara

Winds from several directions pile these dunes into stars, some of them 1,000 feet high.
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The Agena target vehicle before the first docking, Gemini 8, 16 March 1966
Gemini 8 · 16 March 1966S66-25782

Three Inches a Second

That was the closing speed Armstrong held for the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit.
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The Bahamas and shallow limestone banks from orbit, Gemini 5, August 1965
Gemini 5 · August 1965S65-45760

The Seabed From Orbit

The crew patch for this flight read Eight Days or Bust, until NASA managers had the words sewn over.
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Ras al Hadd at the eastern tip of Arabia, Gemini 4, 4 June 1965
Gemini 4 · 4 June 1965S65-34661

Where Arabia Ends

The ripples are linear dunes, sand drawn into long parallel ridges by a wind that keeps to its direction.
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Capsule hitting the Atlantic with its parachute collapsing, Gemini 12, 15 November 1966
Gemini 12 · 15 November 1966S66-59936

The Last Splashdown

It came down three miles from the point NASA had marked, in sight of the ship sent to collect it.
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Spacecraft in orbit with the curve of Earth behind, Gemini 6A, 15 December 1965
Gemini 6A · 15 December 1965S65-63194

Someone Else Out There

Schirra and Stafford reached orbit that morning and found the other spacecraft before lunch.
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Second crewed spacecraft seen during the first rendezvous, Gemini 7, 15 December 1965
Gemini 7 · 15 December 1965S65-63166

Fourteen Days in That Cabin

Borman and Lovell were eleven days in when this was made, and had three still to go.
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Richard Gordon in the cabin beneath the open hatch, Gemini 11, 13 September 1966
Gemini 11 · 13 September 1966S66-54653

Sunlight Through the Hatch

With that hatch open the cabin is open to vacuum, so both men flew the passage sealed inside their suits.
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Agena target vehicle seen during rendezvous in orbit, Gemini 10, 18 July 1966
Gemini 10 · 18 July 1966S66-46122

Borrowing Another Engine

Once they were latched on, the crew lit the target's engine and rode it higher than anyone had been.
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Wadi Hadramawt on the Hadramawt Plateau of Yemen, Gemini 4, June 1965
Gemini 4 · June 1965S65-34658

Rivers That Stopped Running

The plateau is old sea floor, lifted and left dry. What branches across it fills only when it rains.
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Buzz Aldrin inside the spacecraft cabin, Gemini 12, November 1966
Gemini 12 · November 1966S66-62983

Lit by One Lamp

Buzz Aldrin inside Gemini 12, photographed by Jim Lovell on 13 November 1966. Two days earlier the rendezvous radar had quit, and Aldrin found the target with a sextant.
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The Agena target vehicle fifty feet away, Gemini 12, 11 November 1966
Gemini 12 · 11 November 1966S66-62755

Flown In By Hand

The rendezvous radar went unreliable on the way in and was switched off before they were anywhere near.
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Buzz Aldrin's spacewalk self portrait, Gemini 12, 12 November 1966
Gemini 12 · 12 November 1966S66-62922

The First Selfie

The word was thirty six years away. He raised his gold visor first, so his face would show.
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Project Gemini, 1965 and 1966: the first American spacewalk, the first rendezvous in orbit and the first docking. Ten crewed flights, two astronauts at a time, practising what Apollo would need.

24 photographs · 1962 to 1966 · Mission 3 of 14
About Gemini

Mercury proved a person could survive space. Gemini had to prove a crew could do the work a Moon landing would demand. NASA set four goals, and Apollo needed every one: stay in orbit for up to fourteen days, longer than any trip to the Moon and back; walk in space; meet and dock with an uncrewed Agena target, launched ahead of the crew on its own rocket; and come down on a precise splashdown point. Across 20 months and ten crewed flights, the programme worked through them all. Ed White walked in space for 23 minutes in June 1965. That December, Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford flew Gemini 6A to within a foot of Gemini 7, the first meeting of two crewed spacecraft. In March 1966 Neil Armstrong made the first docking in orbit, then brought Gemini 8 home after a stuck thruster set it spinning. Buzz Aldrin closed the programme that November with three spacewalks totalling five and a half hours. When Gemini 12 splashed down, every step Apollo needed had been taken.

These prints run from a Gemini model in a Langley wind tunnel in 1962 and the first Titan II floodlit on its pad, to Ed White outside Gemini 4, the Agena target Gemini 8 docked with, and Buzz Aldrin’s spacewalk self portrait. In between are the deserts and seabeds the crews photographed from orbit, from the Sahara to the Bahamas, and the last splashdown of the programme, on 15 November 1966.

Adapted from the chapter introduction in The NASA Photo Book