NASA launched the Gemini 12 mission on November 11, 1966, sending astronauts Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin into orbit aboard the spacecraft. The flight closed out the Gemini program, the series of crewed missions that helped the agency develop the techniques needed for the Apollo Moon landings.
Aldrin's work during the flight was a central goal of the mission. He carried out several spacewalks, an activity that engineers had identified as a major challenge in earlier Gemini flights. Demonstrating that astronauts could work effectively outside the spacecraft was essential to planning longer and more complex missions, including the lunar landings still to come.
Both men went on to fly famous missions of their own. Lovell later commanded Apollo 8, the first crewed flight to orbit the Moon, and Apollo 13, whose crew survived a serious in-flight emergency. Aldrin later became one of the first two people to walk on the lunar surface, as a crew member of Apollo 11.
The anniversary of the Gemini 12 launch is a reminder of how the skills built in the Gemini years fed directly into the Apollo era. The mission remains a milestone in the history of human spaceflight.
Credit. Based on reporting by Hanneke Weitering and Elizabeth Howell for Space.com. Is this your work? Write to us.
7
