Even as the Soviets racked up one space first after another, NASA was getting closer to the first piloted Gemini missions. Launched by a converted Titan 2 missile, Gemini was the most sophisticated spacecraft yet created. Gemini astronauts would utilize an on-board computer. And they would be able to change their orbit — something no Soviet crew had yet accomplished.
For NASA, Gemini would serve as a bridge between the relatively simple Mercury flights and the awesome challenge of the Apollo moon program.
In just 20 short months, between March 1965 and November 1966, 10 Gemini crews pioneered the techniques necessary for a lunar mission.
They made spacewalks, some lasting more than two hours. They spent a record-breaking 14 days in space — the expected duration of a lunar-landing flight — in a cabin no bigger than the front seat of a Volkswagen. (One astronaut later called the two-week Gemini 7 flight “the most heroic mission of all time.”)
They mastered the arcane complexities of orbital mechanics to achieve the first rendezvous between two spacecraft in orbit, and the first space docking. And they made the first controlled reentries into Earth's atmosphere.
First U.S. Spacewalk, 1965: Floating outside Gemini 4,
Ed White holds a nitrogen-powered maneuvering gun.
To be sure, the Gemini missions had their harrowing moments, none more so than when Gemini 8 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott barely escaped disaster when one of their maneuvering thrusters malfunctioned, causing their spacecraft to tumble wildly through space.
And several spacewalkers had their own difficulties — working in weightlessness was trickier than NASA expected, and more than one sortie had to be cut short when an astronaut became exhausted. Despite these problems, Gemini was considered a tremendous success. It gave the United States the lead in the space race, which was about to become a moon race.
NASA Astronaut Ed White made history on June 3, 1965, when he floated out of the hatch of his Gemini 4 capsule into the void of space. The first American "spacewalk" -- or Extravehicular Activity (EVA) -- lasted 23 minutes, not nearly long enough for White. He later said the spacewalk was the most comfortable part of the mission, and said the order to end it was the "saddest moment" of his life. White was attached to the capsule by a 25 foot umbilical cord. He initially used a gas powered gun held in his hand to maneuver. After the first three minutes the fuel ran out and White moved around by twisting his body and pulling on the cord. This photograph of White's spacewalk was taken by Gemini 4 Commander James McDivitt, still inside the spacecraft.
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