Gemini Spacecraft

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The Bridge to the Moon

Rendezvous: two spacecraft meeting up in orbit. Want to have fun? Come over to my house.
You stand in the back yard, Ill stand in the front, you throw a tennis ball over my roof and Ill try to hit it with a rock as it comes sailing over. Thats what we are going to have to do.

The Gemini program was designed as a bridge between the Mercury and Apollo programs, primarily to test equipment and mission procedures in Earth orbit and to train astronauts and ground crews for future Apollo missions.

The program was publicly announced on January 3, 1962, with these major objectives:

• To demonstrate endurance of humans and equipment in spaceflight for extended periods, at least eight days required for a Moon landing, to a maximum of two weeks
• To effect rendezvous and docking with another vehicle, and to maneuver the combined spacecraft using the propulsion system of the target vehicle
• To demonstrate Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA), or spacewalks outside the protection of the spacecraft, and to evaluate the astronauts' ability to perform tasks
• To perfect techniques of atmospheric reentry and touchdown at a pre-selected location on land