Gemini 9A
Sign in to saveAlso known as Gemini IX-A, Gemini 9AもしくはGemini IX-A
crewed spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program
Key facts
- Mission type
- Space rendezvous Spacecraft docking (failed) Extravehicular activity
- Operator
- NASA
- Cospar id
- 1966-047A
- Mission duration
- 3 days, 20 minutes, 50 seconds
- Spacecraft
- Gemini SC9
- Manufacturer
- McDonnell
- Launch mass
- 3,800 kilograms (8,300 lb)
- Members
- Thomas P. Stafford Eugene A. Cernan
- Eva duration
- 2 hours, 7 minutes
- Launch date
- June 3, 1966, 13:39:33 ( 1966-06-03UTC13:39:33Z ) UTC
- Rocket
- Titan II GLV , s/n #62-12564
- Launch site
- Cape Kennedy LC-19
- Recovered by
- USS Wasp
- Landing date
- June 6, 1966, 14:00:23 ( 1966-06-06UTC14:00:24Z ) UTC
- Landing site
- 27°52′N 75°0′W / 27.867°N 75.000°W / 27.867; -75.000
- Reference system
- Geocentric
- Regime
- Low Earth orbit
- Perigee altitude
- 272 kilometers (147 nmi)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Duration
- 260450
- Mass
- 3750
- Orbital period
- 89.97
- Image
- The Actual Gemini 9 Prime Crew - GPN-2000-001353.jpg
Show 7 more facts
- Commons category
- Gemini 9
- UTC date of spacecraft launch
- 1966-06-03
- orbits completed
- 47
- UTC date of spacecraft landing
- 1966-06-06
- apoapsis
- 274
- periapsis
- 272
- orbital inclination
- 28.8
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~24 min read
Article
Gemini 9A (officially Gemini IX-A) was a 1966 crewed spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the seventh crewed Gemini flight, the 15th crewed American flight and the 23rd spaceflight of all time (includes X-15 flights over 100 kilometers (62 mi; 54 nmi)). The original crew for Gemini 9, command pilot Elliot See and pilot Charles Bassett, were killed in a crash on February 28, 1966, while flying a T-38 jet trainer to the McDonnell Aircraft plant in St. Louis, Missouri to inspect their spacecraft. Their deaths promoted the backup crew, Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene Cernan, to the prime crew. The mission was renamed Gemini 9A after the original May 17 launch was scrubbed when the mission's Agena Target Vehicle was destroyed after a launch failure. The mission was flown June 3–6, 1966, after launch of the backup Augmented Target Docking Adaptor (ATDA). Stafford and Cernan rendezvoused with the ATDA, but were unable to dock with it because the nose fairing had failed to eject from the docking target due to a launch preparation error. Cernan performed a two-hour extravehicular activity, during which it was planned for him to demonstrate free flight in a self-contained rocket pack, the USAF Astronaut Maneuvering Unit. He was unable to accomplish this due to stress, fatigue, and overheating.
Crew