Welcome To The Gemini Project
A Critical Forerunner To The Moon Landing

JRL is proud to have been part of the historic Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Programs.

A Brief History

In 1961, President Kennedy announced that man would go to the Moon within 10 years. His bold announcement led to the Gemini program which laid the ground for the subsequent Apollo program.

The Gemini Programs goal was to perfect a space rendezvous. Astronauts were trained in shared space operations necessary for a Moon flight. Had the rendezvous failed the Apollo program would have been modified. Rendezvous was achieved and perfected with Gemini and the techniques were successfully implemented in the Apollo rendezvous over the moon with the Lunar Lander.

The Gemini Program consisted of the Two Man Module, hence the name Gemini after the twins in the zodiac. The Gemini was launched by a Titan Booster using Hydrazine and Nitrogen Tetraoxide as propellants, a hypregulac mixture. The Module was launched first, followed by the Bell / Lockheed Agena Target Vehicle, launched by the Atlas Booster with Liquid Oxygen and Hydrazine a non-hypregulac mixture, a first for this type of power generating fuel cells in a spacecraft.

Gemini 3 was launched on 23 March 1965 with astronauts Virgil Grissom and John Young occupying the cramped crew capsule. The design was only one and a half times larger than the single astronaut version. At 3.2 tons, the spacecraft was nearly twice as heavy as previous vessels.

The two vehicles rendezvoused in space. The target vehicle was used to change the orbit of the Module using its small secondary Boosters. Some tethering was attempted [one vehicle pulling another into a high orbit].

For the Gemini Project, JRL worked on the second stage Agena D booster engine burning red fuming nitric acid as a oxidizer and U.D.M.H. [Unsymmetrical Dimethyl Hydrazine] as a fuel. JRL also worked on the secondary booster steering engine packages which were used to change orbit attitudes. Each Module had it's own pressure controls, bellows tanks, propellant valves, a 25 Lb thrust chamber and a 250 Lb. thrust chamber. These engines burned U.D.M.H. and Nitrogen Tetra oxide [laughing gas].