How many gemini astronauts were there

Aldrin is photographed during his record setting 5-hour, minute spacewalk. Aldrin was the first astronaut to practice his spacewalking tasks underwater in a swimming pool, resulting in Gemini's most successful spacewalk. Later he would join Neil Armstrong on the first lunar landing in Docking spacecraft was an essential element of NASA's plan to go to the moon. Unfortunately, during the docking maneuvers, one of the Gemini capsule's thrusters short-circuited and fired continuously, sending the docked spacecraft into a spin.

The crew undocked the capsule and used their re-entry thrusters to regain control, but safety rules about using the reentry thrusters forced them into an early landing.

Up Close and Personal. It was the first time NASA had two manned spacecraft in orbit at the same time. The two spacecraft were about 30 feet apart when this photo was made. Gemini IX-A's docking didn't go as planned, because a protective shroud on the docking adapter failed to fully separate.

Stafford dubbed the adapter an "angry alligator," but the crew managed to perform several other rendezvous maneuvers. All of the major objectives were met as well as many other objectives assigned to each mission.

There were two uncrewed test flights and 10 crewed flights - all launched on a Titan II missile. Image Galleries History Videos. Image Galleries History. The wives of the Apollo 11 astronauts at a press conference at the U. Embassy in London, October Commonly referred to as Togethersville, Clear Lake City, Texas, was where early astronauts resided and their wives created a support system. Besides being married to astronauts, these women had something in common—they were expected to personify a hero's wife and provide support for their husband's involvement in space missions.

The Apollo 1 mission ended with a tragic fire on the launchpad that claimed the lives of three astronauts, Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee. The Apollo spacecraft was redesigned and tested in Earth orbit during Apollo 7. Apollo 8 took astronauts into lunar orbit, then Apollo missions 9 and 10 tested the lunar module in earth orbit and lunar orbit, respectively.

Apollo 11 carried the first men Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin to the lunar surface, while a third astronaut Michael Collins orbited the moon in the command module. Armstrong and Aldrin spent hours walking on the moon, and their mission fulfilled President Kennedy's challenge. NASA sent six more missions to explore various places on the moon, where astronauts spent up to two days exploring the lunar surface and gathering samples of moon rocks.

One mission, Apollo 13, did not make it to the moon because an explosion crippled the spacecraft along the route.