THE EARLY YEARS OF HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT

MERCURY AND GEMINI
During the early years of the American and Soviet race in space, their competition was measured by headline-making "firsts": the first satellite, first robotic spacecraft to the Moon, first man in space, first woman in space, first spacewalk. To the dismay of the United States, the Soviet Union achieved each of these feats first. These events triggered a drive to catch up with--and surpass--the Soviets, especially in the high-profile endeavor of human space exploration.

The Mercury and Gemini programs were the early U.S. efforts in human spaceflight and they were spectacular successes:
May 1961--American astronaut Alan Shepard went briefly into space, but not into orbit, on the Mercury 3 mission.
February 1962--John Glenn spent five hours in orbit on Mercury 6.
June 1965--Gemini IV astronaut Edward White made the first U.S. spacewalk.

Although the United States seemed to lag behind the U.S.S.R. in space, it pursued a methodical step-by-step program, in which each mission built upon and extended the previous ones. The Mercury and Gemini missions carefully prepared the way for the Apollo lunar missions.

The one-man Mercury missions developed hardware for safe spaceflight and return to Earth, and began to show how human beings would fare in space. From 1961 through 1963, the United States flew many test flights and six manned Mercury missions.

After Mercury NASA introduced Gemini, an enlarged, redesigned spacecraft for two astronauts. Ten manned Gemini missions were flown from 1964 through 1966 to improve techniques of spacecraft control, rendezvous and docking, and extravehicular activity (spacewalking). One Gemini mission spent a record-breaking two weeks in space, time enough for a future crew to go to the Moon, explore, and return.

Mercury Spacecraft "Freedom 7"