Gemini missions

• 1965Gemini 3 (Molly Brown)The first crewed Gemini flight — and the first time astronauts maneuvered a spacecraft to change its orbit.
• 1965Gemini 4Ed White performs the first American spacewalk — 23 minutes floating outside the capsule — on this four-day endurance flight.
• 1965Gemini 5An eight-day endurance record — proving a crew could survive a lunar-length mission, powered for the first time by fuel cells.
• 1965Gemini 7A two-week marathon that doubled as the target for Gemini 6A’s rendezvous — the longest crewed spaceflight of its era.
• 1965Gemini 6AThe first true rendezvous in space — Schirra flew Gemini 6A to within a foot of Gemini 7, proving the technique the Moon landings would depend on.
• 1966Gemini 8The first docking of two spacecraft in orbit — followed minutes later by a stuck thruster that nearly killed the crew. Armstrong’s calm recovery cut the mission short but saved it.
• 1966Gemini 9AA rendezvous foiled by a stuck shroud, and a punishing spacewalk that taught NASA how unprepared it was for working outside.
• 1966Gemini 10The first mission to use a docked target’s engine for propulsion, and to rendezvous with a second, dormant spacecraft.
• 1966Gemini 11A first-orbit docking, a record-setting climb to 1,369 km using the Agena’s engine, and the first computer-controlled splashdown.
• 1966Gemini 12The program finale: Buzz Aldrin’s methodical spacewalks cracked the EVA problem that had bedeviled earlier crews, clearing the path to Apollo.