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United States
Men In Space Series: Gemini VIII
USA Moon Landing Commemorative Medal
1970’s Silver Medal 35mm (23.69 grams) 0.925 Sterling Silver
FIRST DOCKING TO TARGET ARMSTRONG – SCOTT, Lunar capsule approaching rocket for docking.
GEMINI VIII MISSION: RENDEZVOUS AND CONNECT WITH AGENA TARGET VEHICLE ROCKET: TITAN 2 REVOLUTIONS: 7 DISTANCE: 181,850 MILES MARCH 16, 1966, Logo above.
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 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 12th crewed American flight and the 22nd crewed spaceflight of all time. The mission conducted the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit, but suffered the first critical in-space system failure of a U.S. spacecraft which threatened the lives of the astronauts and required an immediate abort of the mission. The crew was returned to Earth safely.
Command pilot Neil Armstrong’s flight marked the second time a U.S. civilian flew into space and the first time a U.S. civilian flew into orbit.
Command pilot Neil Armstrong resigned his commission in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1960. His flight marked the second time a U.S. civilian flew into space (after Joe Walker on X-15 Flight 90), and the first time a U.S. civilian flew into orbit.
Gemini VIII was planned to be a three-day mission. After being launched into an 87-by-146-nautical-mile (161 by 270 km) orbit, on the fourth revolution it was to rendezvous and dock with an Agena target vehicle, which had been earlier launched into a 161-nautical-mile (298 km) circular orbit. This was to be the first space docking in history. Four separate dockings were planned.
During the first docking, Pilot David Scott planned to perform an ambitious, two-hour-and-10-minute extra-vehicular activity (EVA), which would have been the first since Ed White’s June 1965 spacewalk on Gemini IV. On a 25-foot (7.6 m) tether for one and a half revolutions around the Earth, Scott would have retrieved a nuclear emulsion radiation experiment from the front of the Gemini’s spacecraft adapter, then activate a micrometeoroid experiment on the Agena. Then he was to move back to the Gemini and test a minimum-reaction power tool by loosening and tightening bolts on a work panel.
During the EVA, after Armstrong undocked from the Agena, Scott was to don and test an Extravehicular Support Pack (ESP) stored at the back of the spacecraft adapter. This was a backpack with a self-contained oxygen supply, extra Freon propellant for his Hand Held Maneuvering Unit, and a 75-foot (23 m) extension to his tether. He would practice several maneuvers in formation with the Gemini and Agena vehicles (separated at distances up to 60 feet (18 m), in concert with Armstrong in the Gemini. Scott never got to perform this EVA, due to the abort of the flight because of an emergency which occurred shortly after docking.
The flight also carried an additional three scientific, four technological, and one medical experiment.
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