Page 15 - Apollo Moonships

The Tools for The job 13
ACHIEVING GOALS
The 10 manned space flights carried out during the Gemini Program allowed the United States to achieve important primary goals to support the mission to land an astronaut on the moon. The first manned flight, Gemini 3, was conducted to test the new spacecraft in orbit, but the other flights were made to support the lunar missions: Gemini 4 performed the first American Space Walk; Gemini 5 realized the first week-long flight; Gemini 6
and 7 completed the first space rendezvous maneuver between two space vehicles and showed that durations up to two weeks in space were possible; Gemini 8 accomplished the first docking with an unmanned target vehicle; and Gemini 10, 11, and 12 missions tested several systems and maneuvers, including different types of rendezvous and extravehicular activities. Gemini 11 even executed an essay of translunar injection, setting a manned record-high apogee (Earth orbital altitude) of 739.2 nautical miles.
FIRST RENDEZVOUS MANEUVER
The Gemini-7 spaceship as seen from the Gemini-6 spacecraft on December 15, 1965, during the first rendezvous mission in space performed by the Gemini Program. The two spacecraft were approximately 43 feet apart.