America’s crewed spaceflight program that placed humans into Earth orbit.
Prior to the formation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a number of crewed space concepts had been investigated within the military. After the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957, the U.S. reaction could easily be described as one of panic, with fear centering on the suspicion that the Soviet Union would assume technological leadership over the free world.
The United States’ first attempt to send a satellite into space failed miserably. Vanguard 1 blew up on the launch pad in December, 1957, before the eyes of the world. On January 31, 1958, an Army-based group including Wernher von Braun successfully placed Explorer 1 into orbit. Within months, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, with Congressional approval, created NASA as a civilian space agency. Its first major endeavor was the Mercury project, the goal of which was to send an astronaut into orbit before the Russians. However, the Soviets scored another major first when, on April 12, 1961, they launched cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space. He completed one Earth orbit before safely returning to Earth, landing within the Soviet Union. The Soviets led the space race thanks to their proficiency with heavy-lift boosters, a strength they continued to exploit for many years. This strength played a major role in Gagarin’s achieving orbit before NASA’s Mercury astronauts.
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to enter space. Shepard launched atop a Redstone rocket, which did not have sufficient thrust to lift his Mercury capsule into orbit. Shepard flew a fifteen-minute-long suborbital profile, arcing up to 115 miles altitude and splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Canaveral. Just three weeks later, President John F. Kennedy committed NASA to sending a man to the Moon and back before the year 1970.
To achieve this goal, NASA initiated the Apollo Program. However, the proposed three-man Apollo vehicle was far too big a step over the existing primitive single-astronaut Mercury spacecraft that could orbit the earth for only a brief period. Further, the Mercury spacecraft was incapable of orbital maneuvers of the type necessary for achieving Apollo’s goal using what was termed a lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) technique. LOR involved having the Apollo spacecraft separate into two portions, one that remained in lunar orbit and another that took two astronauts wearing protective pressure suits down to the lunar surface. This separation necessitated a rendezvous after lunar exploration, so that all three astronauts could reunite for the journey back to Earth. Apollo missions would last between eight and fourteen days and would require very precise reentry maneuvers in order to bring the crew safely through a narrow corridor in the earth’s atmosphere where the spacecraft would survive reentry heating.
The Gemini Program was therefore developed as an interim means whereby all of the techniques necessary for Apollo missions could be assessed and refined in low-Earth orbit. Gemini astronauts would build up experience with orbital maneuvering, living for prolonged periods of time in weightlessness, rendezvous and docking separately launched target vehicles, and controlled reentries involving splashing down near recovery forces. Whereas the Mercury spacecraft carried one astronaut and the Apollo spacecraft would carry three, Gemini was designed to build on the Mercury experience with a modular spacecraft capable of flying two astronauts for up to two weeks in duration.
The first two Gemini missions were uncrewed test flights to rate the Titan II launch vehicle and to qualify critical Gemini spacecraft systems. Gemini 1 was launched successfully from Cape Kennedy on April 8, 1964. A Gemini spacecraft mock-up was placed in orbit as a result of proper Titan II booster performance. The spacecraft was meant neither to be separated from the booster’s second stage nor returned to Earth.
Gemini 2, which included the first fully operational test spacecraft, was launched on January 19, 1965. It followed a suborbital profile designed to stress the Gemini spacecraft heat shield’s ability to manage reentry heating. The spacecraft was safely recovered from the Atlantic Ocean.
Gemini 3 launched on March 23, 1965, with astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom and John W. Young aboard. Over the course of three orbits, the astronauts performed three different maneuvers to change the spacecraft’s orbit, the first time that orbital maneuvers were executed on a crewed spacecraft. Russian cosmonauts had flown aboard Vostok and Voskhod capsules that had been largely automated in nature.
Just prior to the Gemini 3 mission, the Russians had scored a major advance when cosmonaut Alexei Leonov departed his Voskhod 2 spacecraft for a brief walk in space. The next Gemini mission, Gemini IV, attempted the first extravehicular activity (EVA) performed from a NASA spacecraft. Gemini IV launched on June 3, 1965, with astronauts James A. McDivitt and Edward White aboard. McDivitt attempted to fly close to the spent Titan II booster’s second stage after spacecraft separation, consuming a great deal of fuel in the process. Because the mission was meant to last four days, a NASA first, it was decided to halt that maneuver to save fuel. On the mission’s third orbit, White opened his hatch and proceeded to exit from the spacecraft using a small gas-powered thruster gun to move about while remaining tethered to Gemini IV by a life-support umbilical. White quickly depleted his gas supply, but he spent a total of twenty-three minutes floating about before returning to Gemini IV’s cabin. After four days, McDivitt flew a manually controlled rolling reentry, and Gemini IV splashed down within range of recovery forces in the Atlantic Ocean. Gemini IV began NASA’s evolutionary buildup toward a two-week-long mission, and its astronauts spent as much total time in space as had that astronauts of all previous NASA crewed flights combined.
Gemini V launched on August 21, 1965, with astronauts L. Gordon Cooper and Charles “Pete” Conrad on board. This mission marked the first use of fuel cells utilizing liquid oxygen and hydrogen to produce electrical power. Problems with systems associated with the fuel cells surfaced early in flight, forcing the cancellation of a rendezvous exercise and a powering-down of the spacecraft. Those pressure problems diminished later in the flight, and Cooper and Conrad were able to remain aloft in Gemini V for nearly eight full days before returning to Earth, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean with no major physiological problems encountered during their record-setting flight.
The next Gemini mission was a planned rendezvous and docking with an uncrewed Atlas-Agena docking target. The original flight plan called for the liftoff of the Agena docking target on top of an Atlas rocket about an hour before that of the Gemini VI spacecraft. Once the Agena had reached the correct orbit, Gemini VI would be launched. Over a period of time, Gemini VI would catch, rendezvous, and join or dock with the Agena. Both of these vehicles would be launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, from separate launch pads.
The first launch attempt of Gemini VI was made on October 22, 1965. Unfortunately, the Agena suffered a failure shortly after it separated from the Atlas booster and was lost. Astronauts Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford were already in their spacecraft, but, with no Agena target in space, Gemini VI was scrubbed in favor of proceeding with Gemini VII, a two-week-long flight of astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell in December, 1965. Gemini Program managers decided to alter Gemini VI’s mission, renaming it Gemini VI-A, and to use Gemini VII as a target with which to rendezvous if Cape Kennedy personnel could refurbish the launchpad sufficiently quickly following Gemini VII’s launch to permit a second Gemini liftoff within a two-week period.
Gemini VII was launched on December 4, 1965, and entered stable orbit. An attempt to launch Gemini VI-A on December 12 resulted in an engine shutdown on the pad, but the crew was safe. Then, on December 15 with the booster refurbished, Gemini VI-A lifted off and began a four-orbit chase, closing to within a foot of Gemini VII’s nose. Even without docking, this dual flight verified the capability of astronauts to execute the maneuvers needed for Apollo. Also, the Gemini VII crew proved that astronauts could survive weightlessness during the longest Apollo flights. Gemini VI-A returned to Earth, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean on December 16. Gemini VII executed its reentry on December 18, landing close to the same recovery vessel that had recovered Gemini VI-A.
Gemini VIII launched on March 16, 1966, with astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott on board. Their liftoff came one orbit after an Atlas booster delivered an Agena to orbit. Armstrong and Scott executed a rendezvous over the course of four orbits and docked to their Agena vehicle. Within one half-hour, Gemini VIII and its Agena entered a rolling motion that threatened structural stability. Armstrong undocked and backed away from the Agena. As the problem involved a Gemini VIII thruster firing uncontrollably, the roll rate increased, forcing Armstrong to regain control by firing other thrusters dedicated for reentry. Gemini VIII had to be terminated early, and Armstrong and Scott splashed down in a backup recovery zone in the Pacific Ocean after only seven orbits.
After Gemini IX’s Agena target, launched on May 17, 1966, failed to reach orbit, the mission was postponed. An alternate target called an Augmented Target Docking Adapter (ATDA) was launched on June 1, 1966, but the crewed Gemini flight, now renamed IX-A, could not follow. Two days later, astronauts Stafford and Eugene Cernan launched from Pad 19. When Gemini IX-A approached the ATDA after a three-orbit rendezvous, the astronauts found the ATDA’s forward shroud had not cleanly separated from the docking mechanism. They used the ATDA for several different rendezvous exercises, but no docking was possible. Cernan attempted a spacewalk meant to last one full orbit, but he ran into difficulties working on a jet backpack he intended to test-fly up to 100 feet away from Gemini IX-A. His visor fogged over, and he had to terminate the EVA and return to the cabin. Gemini IX-A splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean after 45 orbits.
Gemini X included a pair of rendezvous exercises involving the Agena VIII target vehicle and an Agena launched one orbit before astronauts John W. Young and Michael Collins. Gemini X and Agena X were launched on July 18, 1966. After docking Gemini X and Agena X together, a rocket firing of Agena X’s main engine propelled the docked complex toward rendezvous with Agena VIII. Collins performed a tethered EVA in the proximity of Agena VIII and also performed another spacewalk while standing up in his seat to perform astronomical observations. This marked the first time that all major objectives of the Gemini Program were demonstrated in one single mission. Gemini X splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on July 21.
Gemini XI and its Agena were launched on September 9, 1966. Astronauts Conrad and Richard F. Gordon completed a rendezvous on their first orbit and docked to Agena XI. Gordon performed a stand-up spacewalk and an umbilical EVA, the latter requiring early termination, after Gordon overstressed his life-support chest pack’s ability to keep him cool. Using Agena XI’s propulsion system, Conrad and Gordon were able to temporarily boost their spacecraft up to a record 850-mile altitude. They splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean after executing the first computer-controlled reentry.
Gemini XII and its Agena were launched on November 11, 1966. Astronauts Lovell and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin performed several rendezvous and docking exercises, expanding NASA’s experience base. Perhaps the most important aspect of the final Gemini mission involved Aldrin’s three periods of spacewalking, two of the stand-up variety and one umbilical. He spent a total of almost five and one-half hours outside the spacecraft and demonstrated methods that overcame problems encountered by earlier Gemini spacewalkers. Gemini XII landed on November 15 in the Atlantic Ocean.
From March, 1965, to November, 1966, Gemini astronauts flew ten crewed missions, greatly expanding NASA’s crewed space flight experience beyond that of the original seven Mercury astronauts. During that period, not a single Russian cosmonaut flew in space, and NASA finally overcame the early Soviet lead in space technology. Gemini flights investigated virtually all aspects of an Apollo mission and laid the foundation for the successful achievement of a crewed lunar landing in July, 1969.
Collins, Michael. Liftoff. New York: Grove Press, 1988. Provides an astronaut’s perspective of the Gemini and Apollo Programs. Hacker, Barton C., and James M. Grimwood. On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1977. Provides a thorough historical chronicle of program engineering and management evolution. Schirra, Walter M., Jr., with Richard N. Billings. Schirra’s Space. Boston: Quinlan Press, 1988. Provides an astronaut’s perspective of NASA’s crewed space flight programs from Mercury through Apollo.
Aerospace industry, U.S.
Apollo Program
Neil Armstrong
Astronauts and cosmonauts
Mercury project
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Russian space program
Alan Shepard
Spaceflight
Astronaut Gordon Cooper is recovered after the splashdown of the Gemini V space capsule on August 29, 1965.