Category:Gemini space programme

The Gemini project (1961-1966) was NASA's second generation of vertical rocket-based spaceflight, and was based around a two-seater capsule. It followed the single-seater Mercury project and was followed by the three-seater Apollo project.

The additional level of safety associated with having two crew members allowed the Gemini project to experiment with longer-endurance (multi-day) missions and EVA ("extra vehicular activity", or "spacewalks").

The purpose of Gemini was to gain experience of some of the technologies and procedures that would need to be used in Apollo, without having to wait for the giant Saturn V rocket to be ready. Launched from a Titan II modified intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Gemini operations were performed in low Earth orbit (LEO).

Gemini-Agena Target Vehicle

Spacewalks allows spacesuits to be properly tested for the first time, and Gemini was also used to test docking procedures, with the help of a dummy vehicle, the Agena Target Vehicle (ATV, GATV).

Agena was essentially a general-purpose rocket upper-stage with its own propulsion system, and the docked Gemini-Agena was able to operate as a single craft. spinning Gemini-Agena allowed tests of centrifugal "false gravity" that might have been useful on future space stations such as Skylab, and at least one Agena was fitted with a dummy control panel, to test how well a spacesuited astronaut could perform in space doing maintenance tasks.

A failure of one Agena launch resulted in the development of a smaller docking test module, the Augmented Target Docking Adapter.

Toys and models

The Gemini project tends to be underrepresented in model form, as it sat between and overlapped with the Mercury programme (which caught the public's imagination, because it was the first manned US rocket space programme), and Apollo (which excited the public because it actually took people to the Moon).

External links

• Project Gemini (wikipedia.org)
• Agena Target Vehicle (wikipedia.org)
  • RM-81 AGENA (wikipedia.org)