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United States Manned Space Flight
Mercury-Gemini
1961-1966
Project Mercury Spacecraft
Project Gemini Spacecraft
Liberty Bell 7 Launch MR-4
Project Mercury
Project Mercury was the first human space flight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963.
Its goal was to put a man into earth orbit and
return him safely to earth. Photos: NASA
Mercury-Redstone 3
Alan Shephard
May 5, 1961
Sub-Orbital-First American
in Space
Mercury-Redstone 4
Virgil I. Grissom
July 21, 1961
Sub-Orbital-Capsule #11 lost at sea for 38 years upon landing.
Mercury-Atlas 6
John Glenn
February 28, 1961
First U.S Manned Orbital{3} Flight
Mercury-Atlas 7
Scott carpenter
May 24, 1962
3 Orbit Flight
Mercury-Atlas 8
Wally Schirra
October 3, 1962
Perfect 6 Orbit Flight
Mercury-Atlas 9
Gordon Cooper
May 15, 1963
22 Orbit Flight
Project Gemini
Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. Gemini's objective was the development of space travel techniques to support the Apollo mission to land astronauts on the Moon. Photos:NASA
Gemini 3
Young-Grissom
March 23, 1965
First Gemini Crewed Flight 3 Orbits
Edward White
Gemini IV
White-McDivitt
June 3-7/1965
66 Orbit Flight with "Space Walk". Failed attempted rendezvous.
James McDivitt
Gemini V
Conrad-Cooper
August 21-29, 1965
120 Orbits-Test Navigation Systems
Gemini VII
Lovell-Borman
December 4-18, 1965
206 Orbits-14 Days in Space
Rendezvous target for Gemini VI
Gemini VI
Stafford-Shirra
December 15-16, 1965
206 Orbits-14 Days in Space
First space rendezvous accomplished, station-keeping for over five hours at distances from 1 to 300 feet
Gemini VIII
Scott-Armstrong
March16-17, 1966
Accomplished first docking with another space vehicle, an uncrewed Agena. Tumbling of the crewed craft following separation created the first emergency spacecraft landing.
Gemini IX
Stafford-Cernan
June 3-6, 1966
Rescheduled from May to rendezvous and dock with the Augmented Target Docking Adapter (ATDA) after the original Agena Target Vehicle launch failed. The ATDA shroud did not completely separate, making docking impossible (right). Three different types of rendezvous, two hours
of EVA, and 44 orbits were completed.
Gemini X
Young-Collins
July 18-21, 1966
First use of the Agena Target Vehicle's propulsion systems. The spacecraft also rendezvoused with the Agena Target Vehicle from Gemini VIII. Collins had 49 minutes of EVA standing in the hatch and 39 minutes of EVA to retrieve experiments from the Agena. 43 orbits completed.
Gemini XI
Conrad-Gordon
September 12-15, 1966
Gemini record altitude with apogee of 739.2 nautical miles (1,369.0 km)[23] reached using the Agena Target Vehicle propulsion system after first orbit rendezvous and docking. Gordon made a 33
minute EVA and two-hour standup EVA. 44 orbits.
Gemini XII
Aldrin-Lovell
November 11-15, 1966
Final Gemini flight. Rendezvoused and docked manually with the target Agena and kept station with it during EVA. Aldrin set an EVA record of 5 hours and 30 minutes for one space walk and two stand-up exercises, and demonstrated solutions to previous EVA problems. 59 orbits completed.