Key facts
- Mission type
- Space rendezvous Spacecraft docking Extravehicular activity (failed)
- Operator
- NASA
- Cospar id
- 1966-020A
- Mission duration
- 10 hours, 41 minutes, 26 seconds
- Distance travelled
- 293,206 kilometers (158,319 nautical miles)
- Spacecraft
- Gemini SC8
- Manufacturer
- McDonnell
- Launch mass
- 3,789 kilograms (8,353 lb)
- Members
- Neil A. Armstrong David R. Scott
- Launch date
- March 16, 1966, 16:41:02 ( 1966-03-16UTC16:41:02Z ) UTC
- Rocket
- Titan II GLV , s/n 62-12563
- Launch site
- Cape Kennedy LC-19
- Recovered by
- USS Leonard F. Mason
- Landing date
- March 17, 1966, 03:22:28 ( 1966-03-17UTC03:22:29Z ) UTC
- Landing site
- 25°14′N 136°0′E / 25.233°N 136.000°E / 25.233; 136.000
- Reference system
- Geocentric
- Regime
- Low Earth orbit
- Perigee altitude
- 261 kilometers (141 nmi)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- Gemini spacecraft
- Part of
- Project Gemini
- Operator
- NASA
- Followed by
- Gemini 9A
- Follows
- Gemini 6A
- Duration
- 38486
- Mass
- 3789
- Orbital period
- 89.81
- Image
- Portrait of the Gemini 8 prime crew.jpg
- Significant event
- splashdown
Show 14 more facts
- Commons category
- Gemini 8
- orbits completed
- 6
- UTC date of spacecraft launch
- 1966-03-16
- space launch vehicle
- Titan II GLV
- type of orbit
- low Earth orbit
- crew members
- David Scott
- UTC date of spacecraft landing
- 1966-03-17
- vessel
- Gemini spacecraft
- apoapsis
- 270
- periapsis
- 261
- orbital inclination
- 28.9
- location of landing
- Pacific Ocean
- backup or reserve team or crew
- Richard F. Gordon
- start point
- Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 19
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~15 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Gemini 8 (officially Gemini VIII) was the sixth crewed spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was launched on March 16, 1966, and was the 14th crewed American flight and the 22nd crewed spaceflight overall. The mission conducted the first U.S. docking of two spacecraft in orbit, but also suffered the first critical in-space system failure of a U.S. spacecraft. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott temporarily lost attitude control of their craft during the docking procedure, which threatened their lives and resulted in an immediate abort of the mission. The crew returned to Earth safely.
Background
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Gemini 8” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.