Gemini 12 Launches the Final Gemini Mission

The Last Gemini Flight

Project Gemini was NASA's second program of crewed flights, flown between 1965 and 1966 with two astronauts in each spacecraft. Its purpose was to test techniques needed for flights to the Moon, including long missions, rendezvous and docking with another spacecraft, and work outside the spacecraft. Gemini 12 was the tenth crewed flight. Its crew was Commander James A. Lovell Jr. of the Navy and pilot Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. of the Air Force.

Launch and Rendezvous

Gemini 12 was launched from Cape Kennedy on November 11, 1966, on a Titan II rocket, shortly after an Agena target vehicle was launched on an Atlas rocket earlier the same day. The Gemini spacecraft rendezvoused with the Agena and docked with it. During the approach the spacecraft's radar failed, and Aldrin calculated the rendezvous by hand, using a sextant and charts he had prepared. Aldrin had studied orbital rendezvous in his doctoral thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Aldrin's Spacewalks

Earlier Gemini spacewalks had left astronauts tired and overheated, and NASA added handrails and foot restraints to the Gemini 12 spacecraft and its Agena. Aldrin carried out three extravehicular activities during the flight, totaling more than five hours. NASA sources give slightly different totals, ranging from about five and a half hours to nearly six. He worked on a set of tasks such as attaching a cable between the Gemini and the Agena, using tools and tightening bolts. NASA reported that he did them without becoming overly tired, which was a result the agency had been seeking.

The End of the Flight

On November 12 the crew photographed a total solar eclipse that was visible from South America. Gemini 12 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on November 15, after about 94 hours and 59 orbits, and landed within a few kilometers of the planned point. Lovell later flew on Apollo 8 in 1968 and was commander of Apollo 13 in 1970. Aldrin flew on Apollo 11 in 1969 and walked on the Moon.

The Gemini Program in Context

Gemini flew ten crewed missions, from Gemini 3 in March 1965 to Gemini 12. Edward White made the first American spacewalk on Gemini 4 on June 3, 1965. Neil Armstrong and David Scott carried out the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit on Gemini 8 on March 16, 1966, and the mission ended early when a thruster stuck on and spun the vehicles. The first crewed Apollo flight, Apollo 7, took place in October 1968. It was Lovell's second Gemini flight. In December 1965 he had flown on Gemini 7 with Frank Borman, a mission that lasted fourteen days, and Gemini 12 was Aldrin's first spaceflight.