NEXT SPACEFLIGHT

Status

Suborbital
Success

Gemini 2

Launch Time
Tue Jan 19, 1965 14:04 UTC

First suborbital flight of Gemini.

Rocket

Titan II GLV
NASA
Status: Retired
Liftoff Thrust: 1,913 kN
Payload to LEO: 3,580 kg
Stages: 2
Strap-ons: 0
Rocket Height: 33.2 m

Vehicles

USS Lake Champlain

SC-2

Flight #1

Mission Details

Gemini 2

Gemini 2 (Gemini-Titan 2; GT-2) was the second spaceflight of the American human spaceflight program Project Gemini, and was launched and recovered on January 19, 1965. Gemini 2, like Gemini 1, was an unmanned mission intended as a test flight of the Gemini spacecraft. Unlike Gemini 1, which was placed into orbit, Gemini 2 made a suborbital flight, primarily intended to test the spacecraft's heat shield. It was launched on a Titan II GLV rocket.

The spacecraft used for the Gemini 2 mission was later refurbished into the Gemini B configuration, and was subsequently launched on another suborbital flight, along with OPS 0855, as a test for the US Air Force Manned Orbital Laboratory. Gemini spacecraft no. 2 was the first craft to make more than one spaceflight since the X-15, and the only one until Space Shuttle Columbia flew its second mission in 1981.

Payloads: 1
Total Mass: 3,187.0 kg
Suborbital

Location

LC-19, Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA

Stats

Titan II

2nd mission
1st mission of 1965
2nd successful mission