This is a 1965 era animated film is presented by NASA and shows the plan for the GEMINI VI Rendezvous and Docking Mission. The movie opens with 2 rockets side by side; the Atlas Agena will launch from pad 14 and Gemini VI will launch from pad 19, 00:35. Animation of launch sequence plays, 00:45. Agena vehicle is animated to highlight a docking module, 1:30. Agena is shown in a transponder animation, 1:38. Agena is shown in a circular orbit animation of 185 statute miles, 1:59. Gemini orbit is shown in animation with a perigee of 100 miles and an apogee of 169 miles, 2:09. Animation shows the continents and how the spacecraft will travel to rendezvous points, 2:35. Animation shows first phasing maneuver, circularization of orbit and first terminal and breaking maneuvers, 2:50. Because of thrusting the animation shows how the apogee and perigee distances change, 3:30. Animation illustrates how the spacecraft may not be orbiting the earth on the same orbital plane, 3:50. Animation illustrates how thrusters can put the spacecraft on the same orbital plane, 4:12. The illustration shows how Gemini is tracking the Agena with radar, 4:34. Thrusters fired by Gemini force equilibrium in the apogee and perigee of the orbits at 168 miles, 4:57. Animation of the control panel of the spaceship is shown, 5:35. The animation shows the terminal rendezvous phase, 5:55. Animation shows the nose of the Gemini lining up with the Agena target vehicle, 6:10. The animation shows how the Gemini rotates to intercept the Agena, 6:45. Animation shows Gemini and Agena docking together, 7:10. Gemini separates from Agena, 7:41.

Gemini 6A (officially Gemini VI-A) was a 1965 crewed United States spaceflight in NASA’s Gemini program. The mission 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)).

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com