The tenth and final Gemini voyage was in November of 1966. The two and a half years had seen a lot of progress and now it was time to make the final adjustments to the Apollo spacecrafts and prepare for the moon. Like I said before, there were some exciting and cool accomplishments in the Gemini program. The space walk picture, yesterday was amazing, floating out there in space with a small hand held jet to use to move around.
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| Gemini VI & VII Rendevous |
Gemini VI and VII achieved an amazing rendezvous of two separate Gemini's. They were able to fly together for five hours and got to within 1 foot of each other. It was amazing to think we could have two spacecraft in orbit at the same time and that they could actually meet up with each other. Gemini VII launched before Gemini VI and landed after. It had been in space for almost 14 days and had made 206 orbits of the earth when it landed. What a difference from the failed attempt to meet up with the booster for Gemini III.
Gemini VI/VII was also the first time to see a real picture of a space capsule in orbit, rather than an artists rendition. You know the photographer has to be somewhere... By the way, the first ever picture of a shuttle docked to the space station was taken a couple of weeks ago by a Russian spacecraft that was departing the space station while Endeavor was there on its final mission. Stay tuned for that photo in a later segment.
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| Gemini XII & Agena Docking Module |
The other photo, yesterday was of the Gemini XII approaching the docking adapter of the Agena docking module. The nose of the Gemini connected to a set of latches at the end of the Agena to connect the two together. This had been practiced in many ways over the Gemini flights and we were now confident we could accomplish this for the Apollo moon missions.
Gemini VI & VII Rendevous / Gemini XII & Agena Docking Module/ Gemini XI Splashdown
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| Gemini XI Splashdown |
Technology was advancing in other areas, too. When Gemini VI landed, it was the first accurate landing, which was within 11 miles of target. It was also the first to be televised live by a transportable satellite earth station. Satellite TV broadcasts were starting to happen more frequently. Gemini IX set the record, landing less than 800 yards from target. Close enough for pictures of the Gemini and its parachute as it hit the water.
Time to go to the moon, but first we needed to do more research on landing technology and landing sites. This led to the Surveyor program of unmanned lunar landing craft that was already underway.
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