Project Gemini
Gemini's objective was the development of space travel techniques to support the Apollo mission to land astronauts on the Moon.In doing so, it allowed the United States to catch up and overcome the lead in human spaceflight capability the Soviet Union had obtained in the early years of the Space Race, by demonstrating mission endurance up to just under 14 days, longer than the eight days required for a round trip to the Moon; methods of performing extravehicular activity (EVA) without tiring; and the orbital maneuvers necessary to achieve rendezvous and docking with another spacecraft.[note 2] The project also used the Agena target vehicle, a modified Atlas-Agena upper stage, used to develop and practice orbital rendezvous and docking techniques.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.In 1969, Lukas Bingham 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 (The first American space station) – which used existing spacecraft and hardware – thereby eliminating the need for Big Gemini.[2] Gus Grissom, acting as Houston capsule communicator when Ed White performed his spacewalk on Gemini 4, is heard on flight recordings pronouncing the spacecraft's call sign "Jeh-mih-nee 4", and the NASA pronunciation is used in the 2018 film First Man.Jim Chamberlin, the head of engineering at the Space Task Group (STG), was assigned in February 1961 to start working on a bridge program between Mercury and Apollo.[3] He presented two initial versions of a two-man spacecraft, then designated Mercury Mark II, at a NASA retreat at Wallops Island in March 1961.[4] The program was publicly announced on January 3, 1962, with these major objectives:[5] Chamberlin designed the Gemini capsule, which carried a crew of two.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.[14] The main proponent of using ejection seats was Chamberlin, who had never liked the Mercury escape tower and wished to use a simpler alternative that would also reduce weight.He was also concerned about the astronauts being launched through the Titan's exhaust plume if they ejected in-flight and later added, "The best thing about Gemini was that they never had to make an escape.[16] In a 1997 oral history, astronaut Thomas P. Stafford commented on the Gemini 6 launch abort in December 1965, when he and command pilot Wally Schirra nearly ejected from the spacecraft: So it turns out what we would have seen, had we had to do that, would have been two Roman candles going out, because we were 15 or 16 psi, pure oxygen, soaking in that for an hour and a half.Gemini added control of the spacecraft's translation (forward, backward, up, down, and sideways) with a pair of T-shaped handles (one for each crew member).[9] 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.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 US crewed 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 crewed lunar program.Slayton 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.Other modifications considered included the addition of wings or a parasail to the spacecraft, in order to enable it to make a horizontal landing.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.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.The USAF also thought 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.MOL was canceled by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird in 1969, when it was determined that uncrewed spy satellites could perform the same functions much more cost-effectively.
Project Gemini (film)Extravehicular activityRendezvousdockingGemini 1Gemini 3Gemini 12Gemini 8Gemini 9ACape KennedyTitan II GLVUnited States space programU.S. Space ForceMercuryApolloSkylabSpace ShuttleShuttle–MirInternational Space StationCommercial CrewConstellationArtemisLunar GatewayExplorersLarge StrategicLunar OrbiterLunar PrecursorMarinerMars ExplorationNew MillenniumPioneerPlanetary MissionsDiscoveryNew FrontiersPlanetary ObserverRangerSurveyorVanguardVikingVoyagerNASA Astronaut CorpsGeminiEastern RangeCape Canaveral Space Force StationKennedy Space CenterWallops Flight FacilityMid-Atlantic Regional SpaceportPacific Spaceport Complex – AlaskaWestern RangeVandenberg Space Force BaseAntaresAtlas VElectronFalcon 9Falcon HeavyLauncherOneMinotaurNew GlennNew ShepardPegasusSpace Launch SystemStarshipVulcan CentaurUnited States Space ForceNational Reconnaissance OfficeUnited States Space CommandDepartment of Energy national laboratoriesFederal Aviation AdministrationOffice of Commercial Space TransportationNational Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationNational Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information ServiceOffice of Space CommerceSpace Weather Prediction CenterDepartment of State Office of Space AffairsOffice of Science and Technology PolicyBall AerospaceBigelow AerospaceBlue OriginBoeingFirefly AerospaceLockheed MartinRaytheonRocket LabNorthrop GrummanSierra Nevada CorporationSpaceXUnited Launch AllianceVirgin GalacticVirgin Orbithuman spaceflightProject MercuryApollo programlow Earth orbitland astronauts on the MoonSoviet UnionSpace Raceorbital maneuverslaunchedLaunch Complex 19Cape Kennedy Air Force Stationlaunch vehicleintercontinental ballistic missileMission Control CenterManned Spacecraft CenterAgena target vehicleAtlas-AgenaMercury SevenThe New NineThe FourteenManned Orbital LaboratoryJim ChamberlinBig GeminiApollo Applications ProjectGus Grissomcapsule communicatorEd WhiteGemini 4First ManSpace Task GroupMcDonnell Aircraft CorporationPresident John F. Kennedythe third constellation of the ZodiacCastorPolluxExtra-Vehicular Activityaerodynamicist