If Gemini 8 had failed, NASA would most ikely have been shut down. Three times during the space race, NASA nearly lost a capsule and its crew. The first time was during America’s first orbital ...

Gemini 8 was in trouble. After completing the first space docking with another craft, it begins to spin uncontrollably. Ditching protocol, commanding officer Neil Armstrong tries an unorthodox plan.

This is a fragment of the heat shield of Gemini VIII, which carried astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott into orbit on March 16, 1966. They accomplished the first docking in space, but were ...