Celebrating Gemini at 50 years

The International Space Station is helping NASA learn how to go to Mars, the Gemini program defined and tested the skills NASA would need to go to the Moon in the 1960s and ‘70s. Gemini had four main goals: to test an astronaut's ability to fly long-duration missions (up to two weeks in space); to understand how spacecraft could rendezvous and dock in orbit around the Earth and the moon; to perfect re-entry and landing methods; and to further understand the effects of longer space flights on astronauts.

Here are some images of the program, by today's standard of space flight, the ship is quite archaic.

Launch by Titian rocket

First time two manned space craft in orbit. Practice rendezvous

Bud Aldrin in space doing a 'selfie'

Agena target vehicle

Agena target vehicle with a fairing that failed to deploy