Gemini 9A

Spacecraft· NASAinactive

Gemini 9A — Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan (June 1966). Their docking target's jammed shroud looked like 'an angry alligator', and Cernan's exhausting spacewalk revealed how much harder working in the void was than anyone had expected.

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Key facts

Distance from Sun

1.01 AU

Status

Completed

Launched

1966

Mission & specifications

Mission

Operator: NASA
Launched: June 3, 1966
Status: Completed

Trajectory

Distance from the Sun: 1.01 AU
Distance from Earth: 31,352 km
Distance from Venus: 0.57 AU

Mission

Gemini 9A showed how unforgiving spaceflight could be. Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan launched on 3 June 1966 to dock with an Agena target — but the target's launch shroud had failed to release, leaving it hanging open in a way Stafford likened to 'an angry alligator'. Docking was impossible. The mission's other goal, Cernan's spacewalk, went worse: without handholds or foot restraints, every movement set him tumbling, his visor fogged over, and his heart raced as he fought the stiff, pressurised suit to reach the back of the spacecraft. Exhausted and half-blind, he was ordered back inside after two hours. The failure was a gift in disguise — it revealed that working outside a spacecraft was far harder than anyone had assumed, and drove the underwater training and body restraints that would finally make EVA routine on Gemini 12.

1966Gemini 9A launchesLaunch
Stafford and Cernan set out to dock with an Agena target and test a spacewalk.
1966The 'angry alligator'Milestone
The target's launch shroud hangs open — docking is impossible; Stafford likens it to an angry alligator.
1966A spacewalk that fought backMilestone
Without restraints Cernan tumbles and overheats, his visor fogging; the ordeal reveals how hard EVA really is.
1966SplashdownMission end
Home after 47 orbits, recovered by USS Wasp — the EVA lessons reshape training for Gemini 12.

Images

The Gemini 9A crew: Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan — NASA (public domain) · Wikimedia Commons

GEMINI-TITAN (GT)-9A - EARTH SKY - ONBOARD — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

GEMINI-9 - EARTH SKY - EVA — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

Gemini 9 spacecraft during EVA as seen Astronaut Eugene Cernan — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

GT-9A - EVA - EXTRAVEHICULAR ACTIVITY — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

GEMINI-TITAN (GT)-9 PREFLIGHT ACTIVITY - ASTRONAUT THOMAS P. STAFFORD - MISC. - KSC — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

GT-9 TEST - ASTRONAUT EDWARD A. CERNAN -- MISCELLANEOUS — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

GT-9A - RECOVERY - TOUCH DOWN — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

Images from open archives · credit shown per image