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Project Gemini

 

 

 

McDIVITT:  They want you to get back in now.

WHITE (laughing):  I’m not coming in . . . This is fun.

McDIVITT:  Come on.

WHITE:  Hate to come back to you, but I’m coming.

McDIVITT:  Ed, come on in here … Come on. Let’s get back in here before it gets dark.

WHITE:  I’m coming back in . . . and it’s the saddest moment of my life.

 

-Flight transcript from First American Spacewalk, Gemini IV, 3 June 1965

 

 

 

Similar in design to the Mercury capsule, the Gemini spacecraft carried two astronauts into Earth orbit during 10 missions from 1965-1966.  Gemini astronauts practiced rendezvous and docking with both the Agena target vehicle and, on one occasion, between two spacecraft (Gemini 6 and 7).

 

Gemini astronauts performed several crucial maneuvers, which simulated those later used in the Apollo Program, during nearly 970 hours of manned flight.

 

The Gemini Program introduced America’s first spacewalk when Gemini IV pilot Edward H. White II left the spacecraft on a tether in June 1965.

 

The Gemini Program was absolutely vital in the preparation of both NASA and its astronauts for Apollo’s later lunar missions.

 

 

 

On the difficulty of joining two separate spacecraft in orbit:

 

"I'll take a tennis ball and stand in my front yard.   You take a tennis ball and stand in the backyard.  We have to throw them over the house at the same time and have them hit each other without the benefit of sight.  That's orbital rendezvous."

 

-Joe Shea, Apollo Program Manager

 

 

 

 


 

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