Key facts
- Mission type
- Test flight
- Operator
- NASA
- Cospar id
- 1965-024A
- Satcat number span no
- S001301
- Mission duration
- 4 hours, 52 minutes, 31 seconds
- Distance travelled
- 128,748 km (80,000 mi; 69,518 nmi)
- Spacecraft
- Gemini SC3
- Manufacturer
- McDonnell
- Launch mass
- 3,237 kg (7,136 lb)
- Members
- Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom John W. Young
- Callsign
- Molly Brown
- Launch date
- March 23, 1965, 14:24:00 ( 1965-03-23UTC14:24Z ) UTC
- Rocket
- Titan II GLV , s/n 62-12558
- Launch site
- Cape Kennedy LC-19
- Recovered by
- USS Intrepid
- Landing date
- March 23, 1965, 19:16:31 ( 1965-03-23UTC19:16:32Z ) UTC
- Landing site
- 22°26′N 70°51′W / 22.433°N 70.850°W / 22.433; -70.850 ( Gemini 3 splashdown )
- Reference system
- Geocentric orbit
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Duration
- 292
- Mass
- 3236.9
- Orbital period
- 88.3
- Image
- Gemini 6 - Backup Crew (Young and Grissom).jpg
Show 9 more facts
- UTC date of spacecraft launch
- 1965-03-23
- orbits completed
- 3
- UTC date of spacecraft landing
- 1965-03-23
- orbital inclination
- 32.6
- apoapsis
- 224.2
- periapsis
- 161.2
- Commons category
- Gemini 3
- call sign
- Molly Brown
- native label
- Gemini 3
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~11 min read
Article
Gemini 3 (officially Gemini III) was the first crewed mission in NASA's Project Gemini and was the first time two American astronauts flew together into space. On March 23, 1965, astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young flew three low Earth orbits in their spacecraft, which they nicknamed Molly Brown. It was the first U.S. mission in which the crew fired thrusters to change the size and shape of their orbit, a key test of spacecraft maneuverability vital for planned flights to the Moon. It was also the final crewed flight controlled from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station in Florida, before mission control functions were moved to a new control center at the newly opened Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas.
Crew