Gemini 6A
Sign in to saveAlso known as Gemini VI-A
1965 crewed United States spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program
Key facts
- Mission type
- Space rendezvous
- Operator
- NASA
- Cospar id
- 1965-104A
- Mission duration
- 1 day, 1 hour, 51 minutes, 24 seconds
- Distance travelled
- 694,415 kilometers (374,954 nautical miles)
- Spacecraft
- Gemini SC6
- Manufacturer
- McDonnell
- Launch mass
- 3,546 kilograms (7,818 lb)
- Members
- Walter M. Schirra Jr. Thomas P. Stafford
- Launch date
- December 15, 1965, 13:37:26 ( 1965-12-15UTC13:37:26Z ) UTC
- Rocket
- Titan II GLV , s/n 62-12561
- Launch site
- Cape Kennedy LC-19
- Recovered by
- USS Wasp
- Landing date
- December 16, 1965, 15:28:50 ( 1965-12-16UTC15:28:51Z ) UTC
- Landing site
- North Atlantic Ocean, 23°35′N 67°50′W / 23.583°N 67.833°W / 23.583; -67.833
- Reference system
- Geocentric
- Regime
- Low Earth orbit
- Perigee altitude
- 270 kilometers (150 nautical miles)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Duration
- 93084
- Mass
- 3546
- Orbital period
- 89.95
- Image
- Gemini 7 in orbit - GPN-2006-000035.jpg
Show 7 more facts
- Commons category
- Gemini 6
- UTC date of spacecraft launch
- 1965-12-15
- orbits completed
- 16
- UTC date of spacecraft landing
- 1965-12-16
- apoapsis
- 274
- periapsis
- 270
- orbital inclination
- 28.9
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~17 min read
Article
Gemini 6A (officially Gemini VI-A) was a 1965 crewed United States spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. The mission, flown by Wally Schirra and Thomas P. Stafford, achieved the first crewed rendezvous with another spacecraft, its sister Gemini 7. Although the Soviet Union had twice previously launched simultaneous pairs of Vostok spacecraft, these established radio contact with each other, but they had no ability to adjust their orbits in order to rendezvous and came no closer than several kilometers of each other, while the Gemini 6 and 7 spacecraft came as close as one foot (30 cm) and could have docked had they been so equipped.
Gemini 6A was the fifth crewed Gemini flight, the 13th crewed American flight, and the 21st crewed spaceflight of all time (including two X-15 flights over 100 kilometers (54 nautical miles)).