Voskhod and Gemini Program

The U.S. Gemini program was planned to develop the system of knowledge required to travel to the moon. U.S. President John F. Kennedy in May 1961 had established the Apollo program, made to send a man to the moon and bring him safely back to the earth “before the decade is out.” This national commitment resulted in a large-scale, intensive piloted flight program. Two astronauts were carried by the Gemini spacecraft which was designed to work for prolonged periods of time and to acquire docking techniques and rendezvous with another orbiting spacecraft. During 1965-1966, ten Gemini flights were made. Air force Major Edward H. White II while on the Gemini 4 flight became the very first U.S. astronaut to accomplish an EVA. Utilizing a pressurized-gas, jet-maneuvering device, White spent 21 minutes in space. During the December 1965 flight of Gemini 6 and 7 , the two spacecrafts rendezvoused within only a few feet of one another. Subsequent to orbiting for 20 hours, Gemini 6, with Air Force Major Thomas P. Stafford and Schirra landed, and Gemini 7, with Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Frank Borman and Navy Commander James A. Lovell, Jr. , continued to spend a maxium total of 334 hours in orbit. This flight of close to 14 days gave medical information on humans in space that was essential to assure achievement of the 10-day Apollo mission. Likewise, it demonstrated the efficiency of systems such as reaction controls and hydrogen-oxygen fuel-cell electric power. Rendezvous and docking were achieved repeatedly with a target vehicle on the Gemini 10, 11, and 12 missions. Towards the end of the very last Gemini flight made in November 1966, nearly 2000 man-hours in space had been accumulated by U.S. astronauts, which surpassed the Soviet cosmonaut total, and around 12 hours in EVA.