Gemini 6A
Gemini 6A
Launch Date
December 15, 1965
Craft
Gemini
Status
Past
Crew
2
Gemini 6A
Gemini 6A
Launch Date
December 15, 1965
Craft
Gemini
Status
Past
Crew
2
Overview
The original Gemini 6 mission was to feature the first orbital docking to an Agena target vehicle. With Gemini 6 fully fueled on the pad and the crew in their seats, the Agena target vehicle exploded 6 minutes into its launch. Gemini 6 was canceled and replaced with Gemini 6A, which would rendezvous with the 14 day long Gemini 7 mission. The first launch attempt ended with a pad abort and emergency shutdown of the Titan II rocket's engines just 1.7 seconds before liftoff. The causes of the abort were quickly fixed and the mission launched three days later. The crew rendezvoused with the on-going Gemini 7 mission, marking the only time two crewed NASA spacecraft were in orbit together. This became the first time two spacecraft rendezvoused with each other in orbit.
Crafts
Gemini
Gemini
Gemini was a two-person spacecraft designed to prove technologies and procedures for the Apollo lunar landings. Crews proved rendezvous and docking as well as transfer from one ship to another via spacewalk were possible. Gemini demonstrated that humans could live and work in space for the length of time needed for a lunar flight.