Programa Geminis 1ra parte. 1964-1967

Video from the channel Magellan Space Industries about Project Gemini, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 7:27. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

First part, dubbed into Spanish, of a documentary about the Gemini project, told as the intermediate step between the Mercury missions and the 1969 Moon landing. It alternates narration with testimonials from key figures about the program's preparation, the competition among astronauts, and the rocket's reliability, and ends in the moments before the first crewed flight.

The documentary recalls that, when the United States set the lunar goal, the country had barely 20 minutes of crewed spaceflight experience. Mercury had shown that a person could fly in space; with Gemini, they had to learn to work and live there for the length of a trip to the Moon, with two-crew spacecraft, something NASA had never attempted. The testimonials emphasize the competition among the astronauts, since the ultimate prize was being the first to walk on the Moon.

On September 17, 1962, NASA introduced its second group of astronauts, the "New Nine": four from the Air Force, three from the Navy, and two civilians. Ten Gemini missions were planned, each more demanding than the last. To launch the new capsule, the Air Force's Titan missile was adapted; it failed in one out of every five attempts, an 80% success rate insufficient for crewed flight. Engineers reviewed the parts and installed redundant systems throughout the rocket. The first American two-person crew was John Young and Gus Grissom, and the goals of Gemini 3 were to test the new rocket and capsule and return to Earth alive.