Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

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First Steps into Space: Projects Mercury and Gemini
years; that full duration test runs have been made on each stage of the Saturn V
booster; that we now have an eight-day Gemini flight behind us and will shortly
have information from a 14-day flight; and the fact that the Apollo ground test
equipment has largely been fabricated and the flight line equipment will shortly
be constructed and delivered means that we have a growing competence that we
and the world can see is considerably beyond anything the Russians have shown
us, including Proton One. Therefore, I do not believe a decision not to make the
substantial investment that would be required by a modified Gemini lunar fly-by
will change the posture which our program has had for a number of years.
Sincerely yours,
[Signed]
James E. Webb
Administrator
Document I-57
Document Title: William C. Schneider, Deputy Director, Gemini Program, NASA,
for Deputy Director, Apollo Program, “Gemini Support of Apollo,” 25 June 1964
(signed for Schneider by LeRoy Day).
Source: Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC.
Document I-58
Document Title: Eldon Hall, Director, Gemini Systems Engineering, NASA,
Memorandum for Deputy Director, Gemini Program, NASA, “List of Missions,”
17 July 1964 (signed for Hall by John Hammersmith).
Source: NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Division, NASA
Headquarters, Washington D.C.
From the very beginning of the Gemini program, it had four major objectives that would
support the Apollo effort to reach the Moon by the end of the decade. These included:
(1) long duration spaceflight of up to two weeks in duration to demonstrate the human
capability to survive such an extended stay in space; (2) rendezvous and docking with
another orbiting vehicle; (3) engaging in extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or spacewalks; and
(4) developing methods for entering the atmosphere and landing at pre-selected points on
land. All of these were skills viewed as necessary for later Apollo missions, and all except the
last were accomplished. These two memoranda outline the evolution of efforts on the Gemini
missions aimed at satisfying these requirements. The first, signed for Gemini Deputy Director
William Schneider by LeRoy E. Day, longtime engineer at NASA, shows a steady progress of
achievements in support of the Apollo program, each more complex than the last. The second,
signed for Gemini Director of Systems Engineering by Eldon W. Hall, another longtime
NASA engineer, offers a shopping list of Gemini “desires” that never came to fruition, such