Watch the launch and booster separation of Gemini spacecraft as it is lifted off the ground by a Titan II rocket
The Gemini program was conducted between 1964 and 1967 to give NASA engineers and astronauts information about spacecraft maneuvering, rendezvous, and ground control and about human performance in microgravity, in preparation for the Apollo voyages to the Moon. This video shows a Gemini spacecraft launch and booster separation. A Titan II rocket, a modified version of a rocket designed to carry nuclear warheads, lifts the spacecraft off the ground. Once the craft has cleared the Earth's atmosphere, the rocket is jettisoned, and it falls back to Earth. The Gemini craft was an enlarged version of the Mercury capsule and measured 5.8 metres (19 feet) long and 3 metres (10 feet) in diameter.
NASA
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Learn about various scientific efforts to study the planet Mars, including the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers.
-
NASAThe Boeing-built Lunar Roving Vehicle transported astronauts and equipment across the Moon during the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Description of weightlessness and how astronauts prepare for it.
-
SpaceX (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Video released by the spacecraft maker SpaceX in August 2012 after it won a contract with NASA to prepare its Dragon spacecraft to carry astronauts into space.
