.

Project Gemini was NASA's second human spaceflight program. It was a United States space program that started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. Project Gemini was conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten crews flew low Earth orbit (LEO) missions between 1965 and 1966. It put the United States in the lead during the Cold War Space Race against the Soviet Union.

Its objective was to develop space travel techniques to support Apollo's mission to land astronauts on the Moon. Gemini achieved missions long enough for a trip to the Moon and back, perfected working outside the spacecraft with extra-vehicular activity (EVA), and pioneered the orbital maneuvers necessary to achieve space rendezvous and docking. With these new techniques proven by Gemini, Apollo could pursue its prime mission without doing these fundamental exploratory operations.

All Gemini flights were launched from Launch Complex 19 (LC-19) at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station in Florida. Its launch vehicle was the Gemini–Titan II, a modified Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM).[Note 1] Gemini was the first program to use the newly built Mission Control Center at the Houston Manned Spacecraft Center for flight control.[Note 2]

The astronaut corps that supported Project Gemini included the "Mercury Seven", "The New Nine", and the 1963 astronaut class. During the program, three astronauts died in air crashes during training, including the prime crew for Gemini 9. This mission was performed by the backup crew, the only time that had happened in NASA's history to date.

Gemini was robust enough that the United States Air Force planned to use it for the Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL) program, which was later canceled. Gemini's chief designer, Jim Chamberlin, also made detailed plans for cislunar and lunar landing missions in late 1961. He believed Gemini could perform lunar operations before Project Apollo, and cost less. NASA's administration did not approve those plans. In 1969, McDonnell-Douglas proposed a "Big Gemini" that could have been used to shuttle up to 12 astronauts to the planned space stations in the Apollo Applications Project (AAP). The only AAP project funded was Skylab – which used existing spacecraft and hardware – thereby eliminating the need for Big Gemini.

Program origins & objectives

After the existing Apollo program was chartered by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961 to land men on the Moon, it became evident to NASA officials that a follow-on to the Mercury program was required to develop certain spaceflight capabilities in support of Apollo.

Specifically, Jim Chamberlin, the head of engineering at the Space Task Group (STG), was already assigned to start working on a bridge program between Mercury and Apollo in February 1961.[1] He presented two initial versions of Gemini at a NASA retreat at Wallops Island in March 1961.[1] Scale models of Mercury Mark II were shown in July 1961 at McDonnell Aircraft Corporation's offices in St. Louis.[1] NASA approved Project Gemini on December 7, 1961.[1] The McDonnell corporation was contracted to build it on December 22, 1961.[2]

When it was publicly announced on January 3, 1962, it was formally re-christened Project Gemini. Gemini in Latin means "twins" or "double" which reflected that the spacecraft would hold two astronauts. Gemini is also the name of the third constellation of the Zodiac and its twin stars, Castor and Pollux.

The major objectives were:[3]

To demonstrate endurance of humans and equipment to spaceflight for extended periods, at least eight days required for a Moon landing, to a maximum of two weeks
To effect rendezvous and docking with another vehicle, and to maneuver the combined spacecraft using the propulsion system of the target vehicle
To demonstrate Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA), or space-"walks" outside the protection of the spacecraft, and to evaluate the astronauts' ability to perform tasks there
To perfect techniques of atmospheric reentry and touchdown at a pre-selected location on land[Note 3]

Team

The two-crew member carrying Gemini capsule was designed by a Canadian, Jim Chamberlin. He was previously the chief aerodynamicist on Avro Canada's Avro Arrow fighter interceptor program.[4] Chamberlin joined NASA along with 25 senior Avro engineers after cancellation of the Arrow program, and became head of the U.S. Space Task Group’s engineering division in charge of Gemini.[4][5] The prime contractor was McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, which was also the prime contractor for the Project Mercury capsule.[6]

In addition, astronaut Gus Grissom was heavily involved in the development and design of the Gemini spacecraft (the other Mercury astronauts dubbed the Gemini spacecraft the "Gusmobile").[7] Grissom writes in his posthumous 1968 book Gemini! that the realization of Project Mercury's end and the unlikelihood of his having another flight in that program prompted him to focus all of his efforts on the upcoming Gemini program.

The Gemini program was managed by the Manned Spacecraft Center, located in Houston, Texas, under direction of the Office of Manned Space Flight, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Dr. George E. Mueller, Associate Administrator of NASA for Manned Space Flight, served as acting director of the Gemini program. William C. Schneider, Deputy Director of Manned Space Flight for Mission Operations, served as mission director on all Gemini flights beginning with Gemini 6A.

Guenter Wendt was a McDonnell engineer who supervised launch preparations for both the Mercury and Gemini programs and would go on to do the same when the Apollo program launched crews. His team was responsible for completion of the complex pad close-out procedures just prior to spacecraft launch, and he was the last person the astronauts would see prior to closing the hatch. The astronauts appreciated his taking absolute authority over, and responsibility for, the condition of the spacecraft and developed a good-humored rapport with him.[8]
Spacecraft
A cutaway illustration of the Gemini spacecraft

NASA selected McDonnell Aircraft, which had been the prime contractor for the Project Mercury capsule, in 1961 to build the Gemini capsule, the first of which was delivered in 1963. The spacecraft was 18 feet 5 inches (5.61 m) long and 10 feet (3.0 m) wide, with a launch weight varying from 7,100 to 8,350 pounds (3,220 to 3,790 kg).[9]

The Gemini crew capsule (referred to as the Reentry Module) was essentially an enlarged version of the Mercury capsule. Unlike Mercury, the retrorockets, electrical power, propulsion systems, oxygen, and water were located in a detachable Adapter Module behind the Reentry Module. A major design improvement in Gemini was to locate all internal spacecraft systems in modular components, which could be independently tested and replaced when necessary, without removing or disturbing other already tested components.
Reentry module

Many components in the capsule itself were reachable through their own small access doors. Unlike Mercury, Gemini used completely solid-state electronics, and its modular design made it very easy to repair.[10]

Gemini's emergency launch escape system did not use an escape tower powered by a solid-fuel rocket, but instead used aircraft-style ejection seats. The tower was heavy and complicated, and NASA engineers reasoned that they could do away with it as the Titan II's hypergolic propellants would burn immediately on contact. A Titan II booster explosion had a smaller blast effect and flame than on the cryogenically fuelled Atlas and Saturn. Ejector seats were sufficient to separate the astronauts from a malfunctioning launch vehicle. At higher altitudes, where the ejection seats could not be used, the astronauts would return inside the spacecraft, which would separate from the launch vehicle.[11]

The main proponent of using ejector seats was James Chamberlin, head of the engineering division of NASA's Space Force Task Group. Chamberlin had never liked the Mercury escape tower and wished to use a simpler alternative that would also reduce weight. He reviewed several films of Atlas and Titan II ICBM failures, which he used to estimate the approximate size of a fireball produced by an exploding launch vehicle and from this he gauged that the Titan II would produce a much smaller explosion, thus the spacecraft could get away with ejector seats.

Maxime Faget, the designer of the Mercury LES, was on the other hand less-than-enthusiastic about this setup. Aside from the possibility of the ejector seats seriously injuring the astronauts, they would also only be usable for about 40 seconds after liftoff, by which point the booster would be attaining Mach 1 speed and ejection was no longer possible. He was also concerned about the astronauts being launched through the Titan's exhaust plume if they ejected in-flight and added that "The best thing about Gemini was that they never had to make an escape."

Gemini was the first astronaut-carrying spacecraft to include an onboard computer, the Gemini Guidance Computer, to facilitate management and control of mission maneuvers. Unlike Mercury, the Gemini used in-flight radar and an artificial horizon—devices similar to those used in the aviation industry.[12]
Gemini paraglider during tests at Edwards Air Force Base in August 1964.

The original intention for Gemini was to land on solid ground instead of at sea, using a Rogallo wing rather than a parachute, with the crew seated upright controlling the forward motion of the craft. To facilitate this, the airfoil did not attach just to the nose of the craft, but to an additional attachment point for balance near the heat shield. This cord was covered by a strip of metal which ran between the twin hatches. This design was ultimately dropped, and parachutes were used to make a sea landing as in Mercury. The capsule was suspended at an angle closer to horizontal, so that a side of the heat shield contacted the water first. This eliminated the need for the landing bag cushion used in the Mercury capsule.
Adapter module

The adapter module in turn was separated into a Retro module and an Equipment module.
Retro module

The Retro module contained four solid-fuel retrorockets, each spherical in shape except for its rocket nozzle, which were structurally attached to two beams that reached across the diameter of the retro module, crossing at right angles in the center. Re-entry began with the retrorockets firing one at a time. Abort procedures at certain periods during lift-off would cause them to fire at the same time, thrusting the Descent module away from the Titan rocket.
Equipment module

Gemini was equipped with an Orbit Attitude and Maneuvering System (OAMS), which contained sixteen thrusters which provided translation control in all three perpendicular axes (forward/backward, left/right, up/down), in addition to attitude control (pitch, yaw, and roll angle orientation) as in Mercury. Translation control allowed changing orbital inclination and altitude, necessary to perform space rendezvous with other craft, and docking with the Agena Target Vehicle (ATV), with its own rocket engine which could be used to perform larger orbit changes.

Early short-duration missions had their electrical power supplied by batteries; later endurance missions used the first fuel cells in manned spacecraft.

Gemini was in some regards more advanced than Apollo because the latter program began almost a year earlier. It became known as a "pilot's spacecraft" due to its assortment of jet fighter-like features, in no small part due to Gus Grissom's influence over the design, and it was at this point where the American manned space program clearly began showing its superiority over that of the Soviet Union with long duration flight, rendezvous, and extravehicular capability.[Note 4] The Soviet Union during this period was developing the Soyuz spacecraft intended to take cosmonauts to the Moon, but political and technical problems began to get in the way, leading to the ultimate end of their manned lunar program.
Launch vehicle
Main article: Titan II GLV

The Titan II had debuted in 1962 as the Air Force's second-generation ICBM to replace the Atlas. By using hypergolic fuels, it could be stored for long periods of time and be easily readied for launch in addition to being a simpler design with fewer components, the only caveat being that the propellant mix (nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine) was extremely toxic compared to the Atlas's liquid oxygen/RP-1. However, the Titan had considerable difficulty being man-rated due to early problems with pogo oscillation.

The Titan II rocket that carried the Gemini spacecraft was guided by its own (separate) ASC-15 guidance computer. The Gemini Guidance Computer, sometimes called the Gemini Spacecraft On-Board Computer (OBC), was very similar to the Saturn Launch Vehicle Digital Computer. The Gemini Guidance Computer weighed 58.98 pounds (26.75 kg). The core memory had 4096 addresses, each containing a 39-bit word, composed of three 13-bit "syllables". All numeric data was 26-bit 2's complement integers (sometimes used as fixed-point numbers), either stored in the first two syllables of a word or in the accumulator. Instructions (always 4 bit opcode and 9 bits of operand) could go in any syllable.[12][13][14][15]
Astronauts
Astronauts White and McDivitt inside the Gemini 4 spacecraft, 1965
Gemini 8 prime crew and other astronauts at prelaunch breakfast, 1966

Deke Slayton, as director of flight crew operations, had primary responsibility for assigning crews for the Gemini program. Each flight had a primary crew and backup crew, and that the backup crew would rotate to primary crew status three flights later. Slayton also intended for first choice of mission commands to be given to the four remaining active astronauts of the Mercury Seven: Alan Shepard, Grissom, Cooper, and Schirra. (John Glenn had retired from NASA in January 1964 and Scott Carpenter, who was blamed by some in NASA management for the problematic reentry of Aurora 7, was on leave to participate in the Navy's SEALAB project and was grounded from flight in July 1964 due to an arm injury sustained in a motorbike accident. Slayton himself continued to be grounded due to a heart problem.)

Titles used for the left-hand (command) and right-hand seat crew positions were taken from the U.S. Air Force pilot ratings Command Pilot and Pilot. Sixteen astronauts flew on 10 manned Gemini missions:
Yuri Gagarin shakes hand with Gemini 4 astronauts, 1965

Group	Astronaut	Service	Mission, crew position
Astronaut Group 1 (Project Mercury veterans)	L. Gordon Cooper	USAF	Gemini 5 Command Pilot
	Virgil "Gus" Grissom		Gemini 3 Command Pilot
	Walter M. Schirra	USN	Gemini 6A Command Pilot
Astronaut Group 2	Neil A. Armstrong	Civilian[Note 5]	Gemini 8 Command Pilot
	Frank Borman	USAF	Gemini 7 Command Pilot
	Charles "Pete" Conrad	USN	Gemini 5 Pilot
			Gemini 11 Command Pilot
	James A. Lovell	USN	Gemini 7 Pilot
			Gemini 12 Command Pilot
	James A. McDivitt	USAF	Gemini 4 Command Pilot
	Thomas P. Stafford		Gemini 6A Pilot
			Gemini 9 Command Pilot
	Edward H. White II		Gemini 4 Pilot
	John W. Young	USN	Gemini 3 Pilot
			Gemini 10 Command Pilot
Astronaut Group 3	Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin	USAF	Gemini 12 Pilot
	Eugene A. Cernan	USN	Gemini 9 Pilot
	Michael Collins	USAF	Gemini 10 Pilot
	Richard F. Gordon	USN	Gemini 11 Pilot
	David R. Scott	USAF	Gemini 8 Pilot

Crew selection

In late 1963, Slayton selected Shepard and Stafford for Gemini 3, McDivitt and White for Gemini 4, and Schirra and Young for Gemini 5 (which was to be the first Agena rendezvous mission). The backup crew for Gemini 3 was Grissom and Borman, who were also slated for Gemini 6, to be the first long-duration mission. Finally Conrad and Lovell were assigned as the backup crew for Gemini 4. Delays in the production of the Agena Target Vehicle caused the first rearrangement of the crew rotation. The Schirra and Young mission was bumped to Gemini 6 and they now were the backup crew for Shepard and Stafford. Grissom and Borman now had their long-duration mission assigned to Gemini 5.

The second rearrangement occurred when Shepard developed Ménière's disease, an inner ear problem. Grissom was then moved to command Gemini 3. Slayton felt that Young was a better personality match with Grissom and switched Stafford and Young. Finally, Slayton tapped Cooper to command the long-duration Gemini 5. Again for reasons of compatibility, he moved Conrad from backup commander of Gemini 4 to pilot of Gemini 5, and Borman to backup command of Gemini 4. Finally he assigned Armstrong and Elliot See to be the backup crew for Gemini 5. The third rearrangement of crew assignment occurred when Slayton felt that See wasn't up to the physical demands of EVA on Gemini 8. He reassigned See to be the prime commander of Gemini 9 and put Scott as pilot of Gemini 8 and Charles Bassett as the pilot of Gemini 9.

The fourth and final rearrangement of the Gemini crew assignment occurred after the deaths of See and Bassett when their trainer jet crashed, coincidently into a McDonnell building which held their Gemini 9 capsule in St. Louis. The backup crew of Stafford and Cernan was then moved up to the new prime crew of the re-designated Gemini 9A. Lovell and Aldrin were moved from being the backup crew of Gemini 10 to be the backup crew of Gemini 9. This cleared the way through the crew rotation for Lovell and Aldrin to become the prime crew of Gemini 12.

Along with the deaths of Grissom, White, and Roger Chaffee in the fire of Apollo 1, this final arrangement helped determine the makeup of the first seven Apollo crews, and who would be in position for a chance to be the first to walk on the Moon.
Missions
Gemini Mission Control in Houston during Gemini 5

In 1964 and 1965 two Gemini missions were flown without crews to test out systems and the heat shield. These were followed by ten flights with crews in 1965 and 1966. All were launched by Titan II launch vehicles. Some highlights from the Gemini program:

Edward H. White became the first American to make an extravehicular activity (EVA, or "space walk"), on June 3, 1965 during Gemini 4.
Gemini 5 demonstrated the 8-day endurance necessary for an Apollo lunar mission with the first use of fuel cells to generate its electrical power.
Gemini 6A and 7 accomplished the first space rendezvous in December 1965, and Gemini 7 set a 14-day endurance record.
Gemini 8 achieved the first space docking with an unmanned Agena Target Vehicle.
Gemini 11 set a manned Earth orbital altitude record of 739.2 nautical miles (1,369.0 km) in September 1966, using the propulsion system of its Agena target vehicle. This record still stands as of 2014.[16]

Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin on Gemini 12 became the first space traveller to prove that useful work could be done outside a spacecraft without life-threatening exhaustion.

Rendezvous in orbit is not a straightforward maneuver. Should a spacecraft increase its speed to catch up with another, the result is that it goes into a higher and slower orbit and the distance thereby increases. The right procedure is to slow down and go to a lower orbit first, and then later to increase speed and go to the same orbit as the other.[17] To practice these maneuvers special rendezvous and docking simulators were built for the astronauts.[18]

Edward White during spacewalk, Gemini 4, June 1965

Rendezvous of Gemini 6 and 7, December 1965

First docking; Agena target is seen from Gemini 8, March 1966

Mission	LV Serial No	Command Pilot	Pilot	Mission Dates	Launch Time	Duration
Unmanned
Gemini 1	GLV-1 12556			8–12 April 1964	16:01 UTC	03d 23h1
First test flight of Gemini; spacecraft was intentionally destroyed during re-entry 1: The mission duration was 4h 50m, sufficient to achieve all of the mission aims in three orbits; the spacecraft remained in orbit for 3d 23h.
Gemini 2	GLV-2 12557			19 January 1965	14:03 UTC	00d 00h 18m 16s
Suborbital flight to test heat shield
Manned
Gemini 3	GLV-3 12558	Grissom	Young	23 March 1965	14:24 UTC	00d 04h 52m 31s
	First manned Gemini flight, three orbits.
Gemini IV	GLV-4 12559	McDivitt	White	3–7 June 1965	15:15 UTC	04d 01h 56m 12s
	Included first extravehicular activity (EVA) by an American; White's "space walk" was a 22-minute EVA exercise.
Gemini V	GLV-5 12560	Cooper	Conrad	21–29 August 1965	13:59 UTC	07d 22h 55m 14s
	First week-long flight; first use of fuel cells for electrical power; evaluated guidance and navigation system for future rendezvous missions. Completed 120 orbits.
Gemini VII	GLV-7 12562	Borman	Lovell	4–18 December 1965	19:30 UTC	13d 18h 35m 01s
	When the original Gemini VI mission was scrubbed because the launch of its Agena docking target failed, Gemini VII was used as the rendezvous target instead. Primary objective was to determine whether humans could live in space for 14 days.
Gemini VI-A	GLV-6 12561	Schirra	Stafford	15–16 December 1965	13:37 UTC	01d 01h 51m 24s
	First space rendezvous accomplished with Gemini VII, station-keeping for over five hours at distances from 1 to 300 feet (0.30 to 91.44 m).
Gemini VIII	GLV-8 12563	Armstrong	Scott	16–17 March 1966	16:41 UTC	00d 10h 41m 26s
	Accomplished first docking with another space vehicle, an unmanned Agena Target Vehicle. While docked, a Gemini spacecraft thruster malfunction caused near-fatal tumbling of the craft, which, after undocking, Armstrong was able to overcome; the crew effected the first emergency landing of a manned U.S. space mission.
Gemini IX-A	GLV-9 12564	Stafford	Cernan	3–6 June 1966	13:39 UTC	03d 00h 20m 50s
	Rescheduled from May to rendezvous and dock with the Augmented Target Docking Adapter (ATDA) after the original Agena Target Vehicle launch failed. The ATDA shroud did not completely separate, making docking impossible. Three different types of rendezvous, two hours of EVA, and 44 orbits were completed.
Gemini X	GLV-10 12565	Young	Collins	18–21 July 1966	22:20 UTC	02d 22h 46m 39s
	First use of the Agena Target Vehicle's propulsion systems. The spacecraft also rendezvoused with the Agena Target Vehicle from Gemini VIII. Collins had 49 minutes of EVA standing in the hatch and 39 minutes of EVA to retrieve experiments from the Agena. 43 orbits completed.
Gemini XI	GLV-11 12566	Conrad	Gordon	12–15 September 1966	14:42 UTC	02d 23h 17m 09s
	Gemini record altitude with apogee of 739.2 nautical miles (1,369.0 km)[16] reached using the Agena Target Vehicle propulsion system after first orbit rendezvous and docking. Gordon made a 33-minute EVA and two-hour standup EVA. 44 orbits.
Gemini XII	GLV-12 12567	Lovell	Aldrin	11–15 November 1966	20:46 UTC	03d 22h 34m 31s
	Final Gemini flight. Rendezvoused and docked manually with its target Agena and kept station with it during EVA. Aldrin set an EVA record of 5 hours and 30 minutes for one space walk and two stand-up exercises, and demonstrated solutions to previous EVA problems. 59 orbits completed

Gemini-Titan launches and serial numbers
Main article: Titan II GLV
All Gemini Launches from GT-1 through GT-12
USAF serial number location on Titan II
Left: All Gemini launches from GT-1 through GT-12. Right: USAF serial number location on Titan II

The Gemini-Titan II launch vehicle was adapted by NASA from the U.S. Air Force Titan II ICBM. (Similarly, the Mercury-Atlas launch vehicle had been adapted from the USAF Atlas missile.) The Gemini-Titan II rockets were assigned Air Force serial numbers, which were painted in four places on each Titan II (on opposite sides on each of the first and second stages). USAF crews maintained Launch Complex 19 and prepared and launched all of the Gemini-Titan II launch vehicles. Data and experience operating the Titans was of value to both the U.S. Air Force and NASA.

The USAF serial numbers assigned to the Gemini-Titan launch vehicles are given in the tables above. Fifteen Titan IIs were ordered in 1962 so the serial is "62-12XXX", but only "12XXX" is painted on the Titan II. The order for the last three of the 15 launch vehicles was canceled on July 30, 1964, and they were never built. Serial numbers were, however, assigned to them prospectively: 12568 - GLV-13; 12569 - GLV-14; and 12570 - GLV-15.
Program cost

In January 1969, NASA prepared for the US Congress an estimate of the costs for projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo (to the first manned Moon landing). This estimate gave the cost of Project Gemini as $1.2834 billion, broken down to $797.4 million for spacecraft, $409.8 million for launch vehicles, and $76.2 million for support.[19] The Space Review estimated in 2010 the cost of Gemini from 1962 to 1967 as $1.3 billion in 1967 inflation-adjusted dollars, or $7.3 billion in 2010 dollars. Each manned flight cost $723 million in 2010 dollars.[20]
Current location of hardware
Spacecraft

Gemini 1: Disintegrated (intentionally) upon re-entry to the atmosphere
Gemini 2: Air Force Space & Missile Museum, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Gemini III: Grissom Memorial, Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell, Indiana
Gemini IV: National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.
Gemini V: Johnson Space Center, NASA, Houston, Texas
Gemini VI: Oklahoma History Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Gemini VII: Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia
Gemini VIII: Armstrong Air and Space Museum, Wapakoneta, Ohio
Gemini IX: Kennedy Space Center, NASA, Merritt Island, Florida
Gemini X: Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Hutchinson, Kansas
Gemini XI: California Museum of Science and Industry, Los Angeles, California
Gemini XII: Adler Planetarium, Chicago, Illinois

Trainers

Gemini 3A —St. Louis Science Center, St. Louis, Missouri.
Gemini MOL-B —National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio
Gemini Trainer —U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama
Gemini Trainer —Goddard Space Flight Center (Visitor Center), NASA, Greenbelt, Maryland
Gemini Trainer —Kentucky Science Center, Louisville, Kentucky
6165 —National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C. (not on display)
El Kabong —Kalamazoo Air Museum, Kalamazoo, Michigan
Gemini Trainer —Kalamazoo Air Museum, Kalamazoo, Michigan
TTV-2 Royal Museum, Edinburgh, Scotland
Trainer —Pate Museum of Transportation, Fort Worth, Texas
MSC 313 —Private residence, San Jose, California
Rogallo Test Vehicle —White Sands Space Harbor, White Sands, New Mexico
TTV-1 —Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia
unnamed —Air Force Space & Missile Museum, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
unnamed —Air Force Space & Missile Museum, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Ingress/Egress Trainer —U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama
MSC-307 —USS Hornet Museum, former NAS Alameda, Alameda, California

Proposed extensions and applications
Advanced Gemini
Main article: Advanced Gemini

McDonnell Aircraft, the main contractor for Mercury and Gemini, was also one of the original bidders on the prime contract for Apollo, but lost out to North American Aviation. McDonnell later sought to extend the Gemini program by proposing a derivative which could be used to fly a cislunar mission and even achieve a manned lunar landing earlier and at less cost than Apollo, but these proposals were rejected by NASA.

A range of applications were considered for Advanced Gemini missions, including military flights, space station crew and logistics delivery, and lunar flights. The Lunar proposals ranged from reusing the docking systems developed for the Agena Target Vehicle on more powerful upper stages such as the Centaur, which could propel the spacecraft to the Moon, to complete modifications of the Gemini to enable it to land on the lunar surface. Its applications would have ranged from manned lunar flybys before Apollo was ready, to providing emergency shelters or rescue for stranded Apollo crews, or even replacing the Apollo program.

Some of the Advanced Gemini proposals used "off-the-shelf" Gemini spacecraft, unmodified from the original program, whilst others featured modifications to allow the spacecraft to carry more crew, dock with space stations, visit the Moon, and perform other mission objectives. Other modifications considered included the addition of wings or a parasail to the spacecraft, in order to enable it to make a horizontal landing.
Big Gemini
Main article: Big Gemini

Big Gemini (or "Big G") was another proposal by McDonnell Douglas made in August 1969. It was intended to provide large-capacity, all-purpose access to space, including missions that ultimately used Apollo or the Space Shuttle.

The study was performed to generate a preliminary definition of a logistic spacecraft derived from Gemini that would be used to resupply an orbiting space station. Land-landing at a preselected site and refurbishment and reuse were design requirements. Two baseline spacecraft were defined: a nine-man minimum modification version of the Gemini B called Min-Mod Big G and a 12-man advanced concept, having the same exterior geometry but with new, state-of-the-art subsystems, called Advanced Big G.[citation needed] Three launch vehicles-Saturn IB, Titan IIIM, and Saturn INT-20 (S-IC/S-IVB) were investigated for use with the spacecraft.
Military applications

The Air Force had an interest in the Gemini system, and decided to use its own modification of the spacecraft as the crew vehicle for the Manned Orbital Laboratory. To this end, the Gemini 2 spacecraft was refurbished and flown again atop a mockup of the MOL, sent into space by a Titan IIIC. This was the first time a spacecraft went into space twice.

The USAF also had the notion of adapting the Gemini spacecraft for military applications, such as crude observation of the ground (no specialized reconnaissance camera could be carried) and practicing making rendezvous with suspicious satellites. This project was called Blue Gemini. The USAF did not like the fact that Gemini would have to be recovered by the US Navy, so they intended for Blue Gemini eventually to use the airfoil and land on three skids, carried over from the original design of Gemini.

At first some within NASA welcomed sharing of the cost with the USAF, but it was later agreed that NASA was better off operating Gemini by itself. Blue Gemini was canceled in 1963 by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who decided that the NASA Gemini flights could conduct necessary military experiments. MOL was canceled by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird in 1969, when it was determined that unmanned spy satellites could perform the same functions much more cost-effectively.
See also
Portal icon Spaceflight portal

Splashdown (spacecraft landing)
Timeline of hydrogen technologies
US space exploration history on US stamps

References
Notes

The only Gemini spacecraft not on a Titan II was the re-flight of Gemini 2 for a Manned Orbiting Laboratory test in 1966, which used a Titan IIIC
Gemini 3 used the Mercury Control Center located at Cape Kennedy for flight control, as the new center was still in a test status. Gemini 4 was the first to be guided from Houston, with Mercury Control as a backup. From Gemini 5 until today, all flights are controlled from Houston.
The requirement for a touchdown on land using a paraglider was canceled in 1964.
During the ten manned flights of the Gemini program, the Soviets made no manned flights, and despite achieving the first EVA, did no more EVAs until January 1969.

Armstrong retired from the US Navy in 1960.

Citations

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Gainor (2001), pp. 93, 97–99.
Hacker & Grimwood (1977), pp. XV, 75.
Loff (2013).
Murray & Cox (1989), pp. 33–34.
Reguly (1965), p. 7.
Hacker & Grimwood (1977), p. 75.
Agle (1998).
Farmer & Hamblin (2004), pp. 51–54.
Gatland (1976), p. 42.
Dryden (1964), p. 362.
Dryden (1964), p. 364.
Tomayko (1988), pp. 10-19.
Burkey (2012).
"IBM and the Gemini Program"
C. A. Leist and J. C. Condell, "Gemini Programming Manual", 1966
Dumoulin, Jim (August 25, 2000), NASA Project Gemini-XI, retrieved April 12, 2010
"Orbital Rendezvous". Buzz Aldrin. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
"NASA, Project Gemini". NASA. Archived from the original on 2004-11-07. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
Wilford, John Noble (July 1969). We Reach the Moon. New York: Bantam Books. p. 67.

Lafleur, Claude (2010-03-08). "Costs of US piloted programs". The Space Review. Retrieved February 18, 2012.

Books

Farmer, Gene; Hamblin, Dora Jane (2004). First On the Moon: A Voyage With Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-7607-5510-5.
French, Francis; Brugess, Colin (2007). In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska. ISBN 978-0-8032-1128-5.
Gainor, Chris (2001). Arrows to the Moon: Avro's Engineers and the Space Race. Burlington, Ontario: Apogee Books. ISBN 978-1-896522-83-8.
Gatland, Kenneth (1976). Manned Spacecraft (Second ed.). New York: Macmillan.

Hacker, Barton C.; Grimwood, James M. (1977). On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini (PDF). NASA SP-4203. Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved 2015-01-02.
Harland, David M. (2004). How NASA Learned to Fly in Space: An Exciting Account of the Gemini Missions. Burlington, Ontario: Apogee Books. ISBN 978-1-894959-07-0. Retrieved 2015-01-03.
Kranz, Gene (2001). Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-0079-0. Retrieved 2015-01-03.
Murray, Charles A.; Cox, Catherine Bly (1989). Apollo: The Race to the Moon. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-61101-9.
Shayler, David J. Gemini, Springer-Verlag Telos, 2001, ISBN 1-85233-405-3
Tomayko, James E. (1988). "The Gemini Digital Computer: First Machine in Orbit". Computers in Spaceflight: The NASA Experience. Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved 2015-01-04.

Articles

Agle, D.C. (September 1998). "Flying the Gusmobile". Air and Space Magazine (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution) 12 (4). Archived from the original on 11 October 1999. Retrieved 2015-01-03.
Agle, D.C. (September 1998a). "Riding the Titan II". Air and Space Magazine (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution) 12 (4). Archived from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 2015-01-03.
Burkey, Ronald (2012-01-08). "Gemini Spacecraft On-Board Computer (OBC)". Archived from the original on 2015-01-04. Retrieved 2015-01-04.
Dryden, Hugh (March 1964). "Footprints on the Moon". National Geographic Magazine (Washington, DC: National Geographic Society) 125 (3): 357–401. Retrieved 2015-01-04.

Loff, Sarah (2013-10-21). "Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon". Gemini: Bridge to the Moon. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Archived from the original on 2015-01-04. Retrieved 2015-01-04.
Reguly, Robert (1965-09-03). "Canadians who helped Gemini 'Go'". Toronto Daily Star (Toronto). p. 7.
Project Gemini —A Chronology (NASA report SP-4002) (PDF format)
Gemini Midprogram Conference —Including Experiment Results (NASA report SP-121) —Manned Spacecraft Center —Houston, Texas, February 23-25, 1966
Gemini Summary Conference (NASA report SP-138) —Manned Spacecraft Center —Houston, Texas, February 1–2, 1967

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Project Gemini.

John F. Kennedy Space Center —The Gemini Program
NASA Project Gemini site
Project Gemini Drawings and Technical Diagrams
Gemini familiarization Manuals (PDF format).
"Legacy Of Gemini - 1967 NASA Educational Documentary" on YouTube
NASA History Series Publications (many of which are on-line)
Project Gemini McDonnell Employee Video Interviews and Archival Documents: Western Historical Manuscripts Collection in St. Louis, Missouri
Newly released color photos of Gemini in Space

Space Encyclopedia

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