gemini1.htmlGemini
Gemini
is the second US space program run
by NASA. Gemini is the bridge between the Mercury Program, and the Apollo Program.
This program sent up twelve missions, two of which were unmanned. Gemini
also differed from Mercury in that Gemini had a two-man space craft, not
a one-manned space craft. The Gemini Program also had the first American spacewalk.
The
goals of this program are as follows:
* To subject
man and equipment to space
flight
up to two weeks in duration;
* To rendezvous
and dock with orbiting vehicles
and to maneuver the docked
combination by
using the target vehicle's propulsion system;
* To perfect methods of entering the atmosphere
and landing at a preselected point on land.
Its goals were also
met, with the exception
of a land landing, which was cancelled
in 1964.
The Gemini
spacecraft looked a lot like the Mercury spacecraft, just a little bigger. The
measurements are as follows-5.8m (19 ft) long, 3m (10 ft) in diameter, and about
3810 kilograms (8400 pounds) in weight.
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