Editing Space Race (section)

==== Gemini ====
{{Main|Project Gemini}}

[[File:Gemini 7 in orbit - GPN-2006-000035.jpg|thumb|Rendezvous of Gemini 6 and 7, December 1965]]

Though delayed a year to reach its first flight, Gemini was able to take advantage of the USSR's two-year hiatus after Voskhod, which enabled the US to catch up and surpass the previous Soviet superiority in piloted spaceflight. Gemini had ten crewed missions between March 1965 and November 1966: [[Gemini 3]], [[Gemini 4]], [[Gemini 5]], [[Gemini 6A]], [[Gemini 7]], [[Gemini 8]], [[Gemini 9A]], [[Gemini 10]], [[Gemini 11]], and [[Gemini 12]]; and accomplished the following:

* Every mission demonstrated the ability to adjust the crafts' inclination and apsis without issue.
* Gemini 5 demonstrated eight-day endurance, long enough for a round trip to the Moon. Gemini 7 demonstrated a fourteen-day endurance flight.
* Gemini 6A demonstrated rendezvous and [[orbital station-keeping|station-keeping]] with Gemini 7 for three consecutive orbits at distances as close as {{convert|1|ft|m|sp=us}}.<ref>{{cite web
 |title       = The World's First Space Rendezvous
 |work        = Apollo to the Moon; To Reach the Moon – Early Human Spaceflight
 |publisher   = Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
 |url         = http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/attm/rm.ey.g7.3.html
 |access-date  = September 17, 2006
 
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20071116112847/http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/attm/rm.ey.g7.3.html
 |archive-date = November 16, 2007
 }}</ref> Gemini 9A also achieved rendezvous with an [[Agena Target Vehicle]] (ATV).
* Rendezvous and [[docking and berthing of spacecraft|docking]] with the ATV was achieved on Gemini 8, 10, 11, and 12. Gemini 11 achieved the first direct-ascent rendezvous with its Agena target on the first orbit.
*[[Extravehicular activity]] (EVA) was perfected through increasing practice on Gemini 4, 9A, 10, 11, and 12. On Gemini 12, [[Edwin Aldrin|Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin]] spent over five hours working comfortably during three (EVA) sessions, finally proving that humans could perform productive tasks outside their spacecraft.
* Gemini 10, 11, and 12 used the ATV's engine to make large changes in its orbit while docked. Gemini 11 used the Agena's rocket to achieve a crewed Earth orbit record [[apogee]] of {{convert|742|nmi|km|sp=us}}.

Gemini 8 experienced the first in-space mission abort on March 17, 1966, just after achieving the world's first docking, when a stuck or shorted thruster sent the craft into an uncontrolled spin. Command pilot [[Neil Armstrong]] was able to shut off the stuck thruster and stop the spin by using the re-entry control system.{{sfn|Gatland|1976|p=176}} He and his crewmate [[David Scott]] landed and were recovered safely.<ref name="Gemini 8 Crew and PJs">{{cite web |url=http://www.nasaimages.org/luna/servlet/detail/nasaNAS~7~7~32671~136538:Gemini-8-crew-stands-on-deck-of-rec |title=Gemini8 Crew and PJs |access-date=2010-06-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727151042/http://www.nasaimages.org/luna/servlet/detail/nasaNAS~7~7~32671~136538%3AGemini-8-crew-stands-on-deck-of-rec |archive-date=2011-07-27 }}</ref>

Most of the novice pilots on the early missions would command the later missions. In this way, Project Gemini built up spaceflight experience for the pool of astronauts for the Apollo lunar missions. With the completion of Gemini, the US had demonstrated many of the key technologies necessary to make Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon, namely crewed spacecraft docking, with the exception of developing a large enough launch vehicle.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-03-27 |title=Gemini Pioneered the Technology Driving Today's Exploration - NASA |url=https://www.nasa.gov/missions/gemini/gemini-pioneered-the-technology-driving-todays-exploration/ |access-date=2024-11-26 |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:Space Race 1957-1975 black text.png|center|thumb|upright=2.0|Progress in the Space Race, showing the US passing the Soviets in 1965]]