The Gemini VII-VI Flight, First U.S. Rendezvous in Space!

Gemini VII launched Dec. 4, 1965. The primary objective of Gemini VII was to conduct a 14-day mission and evaluate the effects of long-term flight on the crew. Secondarily, Gemini VII was to provide a target for the first U.S. space rendezvous with Gemini VI. Gemini VI was originally planned to launch in October 1965 and target a unpiloted Agena upper stage to launch atop an Atlas rocket on Oct. 25, 1965, which however did not make it to orbit. So, Gemini VI was reassigned to launch after Gemini VII and rendezvous with it instead. That might have been a idea by Walter Burke, spacecraft chief at McDonnell Aircraft Corp. -the contractors to the Gemini craft- and his deputy, John Yardley. This is why Gemini VII had launched before Gemini VI

Gemini VII, with astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell on board, orbited the Earth for two weeks while Gemini VI was launched. Astronauts Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford launched aboard Gemini VI on December 15, 1965 to complete the rendezvous. Schirra was a member of the original NASA's seven astronauts as Stafford was one of nine pilots selected in NASA's second group of astronauts. That was also a feat in terms that Gemini VI launched nine days after Gemini VII from the same launch pad, which was next to impossible then as it normally took nine weeks to clean up the pad, erect the booster, and mate the spacecraft. Barely had the Gemini VII begun its ascent to the orbit that the Gemini VI was rolled out of the hanger. The launch of Gemini VI further did not occur without hurdles. After about 1.5 seconds of firing, the engines abruptly shut down and there was no liftoff. The crew however saw at the ship's instruments that they had lifted off and in case of malfunction, they had to activate the ejection seats. Schirra's experience from Mercury 8 paid off. He did not feel the motion of liftoff and did not activate! A new launch three days after was more successfull

The radar on Gemini VI first made contact with Gemini VII after 3 hours and 15 minutes when they were 270 miles away. Soon thereafter, Schirra established voice contact with Borman. About six hours after liftoff, while passing over the Hawaii tracking station on Gemini VI's fourth orbit, Schirra reported that he and Stafford had caught up with Borman and Lovell and flying in formation. During the next five and a half hours of station keeping, the crews moved as close as one foot, taking pictures and describing the appearance of each spacecraft. Later, Gemini VI fired its thrusters and slowly drifted out to 10 miles, preventing an accidental collision during their sleep period. Schirra and Stafford entertained both craft in those times of holiday, playing 'Jingle Bells' on a small harmonica and ringing a handful of small bells. Gemini VI re-entered the next day, landing in the Atlantic Ocean within 10 miles of the USS Wasp aircraft carrier. The recovery of Schirra and Stafford also was the first to be televised live. Borman and Lovell held the world record for the longest human spaceflight until the 17-day Soyuz 9 mission in June 1970 and were U.S. record holders until the Skylab missions in 1973 and 1974

Gemini VII also, basically, was a effort to better understand how humans adapt to microgravity allowing to medically commit man to a lunar mission and the culmination of NASA's effort to double man's exposure to space. The Gemini 7/6 flight was the first successful rendezvous of two crewed spacecraft. Although the Soviet Union twice had launched simultaneous pairs of Vostok spacecraft in 1962 and 1963, the cosmonauts only established radio contact, coming no closer than several miles of each other. Researchers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided know-how that helped make Gemini VII/VI-A possible. As soon as by the summer of 1959, two study groups were formed at NASA Langley dedicated to figuring out how best to perform a rendezvous in space, a new concept. The leader of both groups, John Houbolt, was to become the agency’s greatest champion of the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous concept used by NASA during the Apollo program. As far as the Gemini program is concerned, astronauts practiced on the center’s Rendezvous Docking Simulator, an apparatus installed in the rafters of Building 1244, better known as the center’s hangar. Apollo astronauts also trained in the Lunar Landing Research Facility. Most Gemini training, on a other hand, was done at Manned Spacecraft Center (now Johnson Space Center) in Houston, but many astronauts got familiar with rendezvous and docking techniques at NASA Langley. NASA Langley’s lesser-known Visual Docking Simulator gave Gemini astronauts another way to practice their space moves and training into guiding the spacecraft toward a target