posted 04-04-2021 02:23 PM               

Space Cover 604: Gemini 3

NASA's first crewed Gemini spaceflight was made on Gemini 3 by astronaut Gus Grissom and astronaut John Young, on March 23, 1965, at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The two astronauts of the Gemini 3 mission were called "Space Twins" by the press after they observed the seasonally seen constellation Gemini with its two major stars Castor and Pollux.

The space cover above was made by Centennial Covers for the mission.

The Orbit cover shown is cancelled on March 23, 1965, by the recovery ship, USS Intrepid, in the Atlantic Ocean and on station near Turks and Caicos Islands, overshooting the mission's splashdown due to the crew's inability to achieve their completion point at the end of their mission.

This cover is special in that it was autographed by both Grissom and Young. The is a great NASA cover for this successful historic Gemini mission as the astronauts returned to Florida on March 25, 1965.

The incredible success of the Gemini 3 mission is an achievement for Grissom and Young. They prove how important the mission is, as well as also show how critical the new spacecraft would be for the major work that lies ahead. Also being added to their schedule are other important missions to prepare other crews to travel to the moon.

The space cover shown above for Gemini 3's return to Cape Canaveral is by George Goldey.

posted 04-04-2021 05:16 PM               

As Steve mentioned the crew splashed down some distance off target. This was later traced to the fact that, although Gemini was designed to have some limited maneuverability during re-entry, that maneuverability was even more limited than they had thought. So Gemini 3 overshot their landing point. To wrap this discussion up, here's an unnumbered Beck Cachet from the prime recovery ship, the USS Intrepid for the Gemini 3 recovery.