Rare Pictures From the Dawn of NASA Spaceflight

Buzz on Gemini
Photograph courtesy Arizona State University/NASA
Astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin snaps a self-portrait while spacewalking during NASA's Gemini 12 mission in November 1966. Part of a camera (foreground) and the antenna of an unmanned Agena target vehicle—used during the Gemini program for rendezvous and docking practice—are visible in the left corner of the frame.
The newly released picture is among thousands of high-resolution digital scans that are being created as part of the Project Gemini Online Digital Archive.
(Also see "Buzz Aldrin, First Man (to Pee) on the Moon, Sounds Off.")
Project Gemini (1964 to 1966) was the second U.S. human spaceflight program. It came after the Mercury missions, which lofted the first U.S. astronauts into orbit, but before the Apollo spaceflights, which included the first moon landing in 1969.
(Read about the Apollo 11 moon-landing mission in a 1969 National Geographic magazine article.)
The specific goals of Gemini included practicing rendezvous and docking between two crewed spacecraft, successfully undertaking extravehicular activities (aka spacewalking), perfecting reentry procedures, understanding the effects of the space environment on humans, and testing systems for the upcoming Apollo spacecraft.
"Those sorts of lessons about how things worked and how to operate in space were really critical in getting to the moon," said NASA chief historian William Barry.
—Ker Than
Published January 23, 2012
Golden Lifeline
Photograph courtesy Arizona State University/NASA
Tethered to a spacecraft by cords wrapped in gold tape, astronaut Edward H. White floats over New Mexico during the Gemini 4 mission in June 1965—the first U.S. mission to include a spacewalk.
In his right hand, White is griping a Hand-Held Self-Maneuvering Unit, or "zip gun," which Gemini astronauts used to move—albeit clumsily—in space.
"They found that it was a little hard to do," Barry explained, "because you've got this little rocket-jet thing there on the end of your arm, so when you use it, it tends to spin you around while you're firing."
(Related: "China's First Spacewalk Mission a Step Toward the Moon?")
During the spacewalk, White famously lost track of time and returned to the Gemini 4 spacecraft only after the flight director yelled for him to "get back in!"
"I guess he was having a good time," Barry said.
Published January 23, 2012
Historic Everglades
Photograph courtesy Arizona State University/NASA
Cape Sable in Florida's Everglades National Park is seen from space in this picture snapped during NASA's Gemini 4 mission in June 1965.
An important scientific goal of the Gemini project was to test the quality of photographs of Earth taken from space, NASA historian Barry said. (Related pictures: "Twenty Stunning Shots of Earth From Space.")
"There's a lot of these pictures of the Earth on those early Gemini rolls of film," he added. "NASA actually published a pair of books of Gemini Earth photography in 1967."
A collaboration between NASA's Johnson Space Center and Arizona State University, the Project Gemini Online Digital Archive marks the first time the Gemini-era film photographs of Earth have appeared in digital format.
Published January 23, 2012
On Target
Photograph courtesy Arizona State University/NASA
An Agena target vehicle is seen floating above Earth during the 1966 Gemini 12 mission.
"The Agena was originally developed by [the Lockheed Corporation] for an early spy-satellite program," NASA's Barry said. "But the Gemini program was trying to find a target to rendezvous with, and they didn't want to launch two Gemini spacecraft. So they modified these Agena [rocket] upper stages so they could dock with them.
(Related: "Area 51 Pictures—Secret Plane Crash Revealed.")
"The plan was to dock with it and fire a rocket motor [on the Agena] and go to a higher orbit and try different things."
Published January 23, 2012
Space Shooter
Photograph courtesy Arizona State University/NASA
Astronaut Ed White floats in zero gravity above the Hawaiian Islands during the 1965 Gemini 4 mission. A Hasselblad camera is attached to his zip gun.
NASA used Hasselblads for the Gemini missions because the cameras were highly reliable, sturdy, and just the right size, Barry explained. In addition, the devices had big controls that were easier for astronauts to operate while wearing thick gloves.
(Related: "Astronauts' Fingernails Falling Off Due to Glove Design.")
Published January 23, 2012
Tragedy and Triumph
Photograph courtesy Arizona State University/NASA
NASA command pilot Thomas Stafford peers out the window of the Gemini 9 spacecraft in June 1966. Stafford was originally part of the backup crew for the mission, but he was tapped to fly after Gemini 9's original crew members—astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett—had died while on duty.
See and Bassett "were flying their T-38 jets into St. Louis to go into the factory where the Gemini spacecraft were being built" by the Missouri-based McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, Barry said.
"The weather was really bad and, tragically, they were both killed when their planes crashed. So four months before the flight, Tom Stafford suddenly became the commander for that mission."
(Related pictures: "Five Myths of Challenger Shuttle Disaster Debunked.")
Published January 23, 2012
Gravity Makers?
Photograph courtesy Arizona State University/NASA
An Agena target vehicle floats between the Gemini 11 spacecraft and Baja California, Mexico, while connected to the Gemini craft by a tether in September 1966.
"One of the experiments NASA was interested in was, can you develop artificial gravity by hooking two things together and spinning them around each other?" Barry said.
"It sort of worked, but it didn't make a whole lot of artificial gravity." Such lessons from Project Gemini would later be applied during the Apollo missions.
"We learned lots of things," Barry said. "For example, we discovered that when you rendezvous, you probably want to come up from underneath the other spacecraft ... so you don't have the Earth distracting you in the background."
(Also see "Apollo 11: Five Little-Known Facts About the Moon Landing.")
Published January 23, 2012
Headed Out
Photograph courtesy Arizona State University/NASA
Gemini 11 pilot Richard Gordon is seen fully suited and preparing to open the hatch for a spacewalk in 1966.
During Gemini 11, "they did a number of extravehicular activities"—EVAs, or spacewalks—"where they practiced doing things like connecting tethers between two spacecraft [as well as] standup EVAs where they took pictures," Barry said.
(Related: "Astronauts Walk on 'Mars,' Start Experiments.")
Published January 23, 2012
Orbital Meeting
Photograph courtesy Arizona State University/NASA
The Gemini 7 capsule is seen floating in space in a picture taken by astronauts aboard the Gemini 6 spacecraft in December 1965.
During Gemini 7, astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell spent what was then a record 13 days in space. Near the end of the mission, Borman and Lovell were joined in orbit by Gemini 6, and the sister modules made the first rendezvous between two crewed spacecraft.
(Related: "Robot Arm to Grab Robotic Ship-A Space Station First [2009].")
"That's a picture of those guys sitting there in their lonely spacecraft roaming over the Earth," NASA chief historian Barry said. The prolonged space outing was a test to prove that humans could indeed survive the time it would take for a mission to the moon and back.
"Nobody had confirmed that you could last that long in orbit," Barry said. "So they sent [Borman and Lovell] to do this long-duration mission and gave them special space suits that had fewer hard points on them, so they wouldn't be quite so cramped."
Published January 23, 2012
Astronaut Self-Portrait
Photograph courtesy Arizona State University/NASA
Gemini 10 pilot Michael Collins appears slightly out of focus in this picture taken from inside the spacecraft shortly after launch in July 1966.
"You can see that it wasn't exactly luxurious accommodations up there," Barry said.
Also, because the astronauts were trained primarily to use the cameras to take pictures of Earth, portraits and self-portraits would sometimes come out blurry.
"Taking pictures of themselves in orbit was probably the last thing these guys thought of as a top priority," Barry said.
(Also see "The Most Unforgettable Space Shuttle Pictures.")
Published January 23, 2012