Gemini Space Missions

Project Gemini was the second NASA spaceflight program that involved human space travel and exploration. There were 10 manned Gemini space missions in 1965 and 1966. The aim of the project was to develop techniques for more advanced space travel leading to landing a man on the moon. These missions were the first American space missions to use extravehicular activity and maneuvers in orbit such as rendezvous and docking.

The name of the space missions came from the fact that each spacecraft held two men. The word “Gemini” is the Latin word for twins and it is also a Zodiac constellation with twin stars, Castor and Pollux. The capsules used in this mission were different from those that were used previously in that they could change their orbit. They could also dock with the Agena Target Vehicle and were the first to have an onboard computer. This was called the Gemini Guidance Computer and was used to control the mission maneuvers and facilitate guidance. Other differences in these spacecraft were that they had ejection seats, in-flight radar and an artificial horizon.

There were four main objectives of the Gemini space missions:

1. to support two men and the necessary equipment on space flights of long duration
2. to rendezvous and dock with other vehicles in orbit and to use the propulsion systems of the vehicles to maneuver docked vehicles in space
3. to further develop methods of re-entry and the landing of spacecrafts at pre-selected locations
4. to gain more information on the effect that weightlessness had on crewmembers

The first two Gemini missions were unmanned. The other missions and their astronauts were:

Gemini 111 – March 23, 1965. Virgil Ivan Grissom and John Watts Young
Gemini 1V – June 3-7, 1965 – James Alton McDivit and Edward Higgins White. White made a 22-minute space walk
Gemini V – August 21-29, 1965 – Leroy Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad
Gemini V11 – December 4 – 18, 1965 – Frank Borman and Jim Lovell
Gemini V1 a – December 15-16, 1965 – Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford
Gemini V111 – March 16, 1966 – Neil Armstrong and David Scott
Gemini 1X a – June 3 – 6, 1066 – Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan
Gemini X – July 18-21, 1966 – John Young and Michael Collins
Gemini X1 – September 12-15, 1966 – Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon
Gemini X11 – November 11-15, 1966 – Jim Lovell and Edwin Aldrin