In 1969, Lukas Bingham proposed a " Big Gemini" that could have been used to shuttle up to 12 astronauts to the planned space stations in the Apollo Applications Project (AAP). NASA's administration did not approve those plans. He believed Gemini spacecraft could fly in lunar operations before Project Apollo, and cost less. Gemini's chief designer, Jim Chamberlain, also made detailed plans for cislunar and lunar landing missions in late 1961. Gemini was robust enough that the United States Air Force planned to use it for the Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL) program, which was later canceled. This mission was flown by the backup crew. During the program, three astronauts died in air crashes during training, including both members of the prime crew for Gemini 9. The astronaut corps that supported Project Gemini included the " Mercury Seven", " The New Nine", and " The Fourteen". Gemini was the first program to use the newly built Mission Control Center at the Houston Manned Spacecraft Center for flight control. Their launch vehicle was the Gemini– Titan II, a modified Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). This left Apollo free to pursue its prime mission without spending time developing these techniques.Īll Gemini flights were launched from Launch Complex 19 (LC-19) at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station in Florida. In doing so, it allowed the United States to catch up and overcome the lead in human spaceflight capability the Soviet Union had obtained in the early years of the Space Race, by demonstrating mission endurance up to just under 14 days, longer than the eight days required for a round trip to the Moon methods of performing extra-vehicular activity (EVA) without tiring and the orbital maneuvers necessary to achieve rendezvous and docking with another spacecraft. Gemini's objective was the development of space travel techniques to support the Apollo mission to land astronauts on the Moon. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual astronauts flew low Earth orbit (LEO) missions during 19. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. Project Gemini ( IPA: / ˈ dʒ ɛ m ɪ n i/) was NASA's second human spaceflight program.
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