List of Gemini astronauts

The Gemini astronauts were sixteen pilots who flew in Project Gemini, NASA's second human spaceflight program, between projects Mercury and Apollo. Carrying two astronauts at a time, a senior command pilot and a junior pilot, the Gemini spacecraft was used for ten crewed missions. Four of the sixteen astronauts flew twice.^[1][2]

Gemini VI-A (foreground) and Gemini VII make the first rendezvous in orbit between two crewed spacecraft, December 15, 1965

Gemini was the second phase in the United States space program's larger goal of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" before the end of the 1960s, as proposed by president John F. Kennedy. As an intermediary step, Gemini afforded its astronauts the opportunity to gain critical spaceflight experience, performing tasks required in the later Apollo program which fulfilled this objective. Such tasks included rendezvous or station-keeping with other craft, docking, habitation in space over the course of several days, and flying spacecraft with more than one crew member. Importantly, most individuals who flew as Gemini astronauts returned to space as key personnel in the Apollo program, bringing with them their first-hand experience of the operations carried out during Gemini. Among the Gemini astronauts, six later walked on the Moon, another five flew to the Moon without landing, and two participated in Low Earth orbit Apollo missions. Gus Grissom and Ed White were killed in the Apollo 1 disaster, and former Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper did not perform any further spaceflights.

All Gemini astronauts–excluding the Mercury Seven astronauts already included–were inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1993.^[3]

Astronaut participation in Project Gemini was also a strong predictor for future achievement during the Apollo Program:

• Every Apollo mission commander, including Gus Grissom and with the exception of Alan Shepard, was a Gemini veteran.
• All three crew members of Apollo 11, the first lunar landing-Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin-were Gemini veterans.
• All three of the men who flew to the Moon twice-Jim Lovell, John Young and Gene Cernan-were Gemini veterans.
• With the exception of Elliot See, every member of NASA's second Astronaut Group—the class of nine men selected following the Mercury Seven—flew as a Gemini astronaut.

The Gemini Astronauts^[a]

Mission	Command Pilot				Crew Portrait	Pilot
	Name	Spaceflight	AG	Service		Name	Spaceflight	AG	Service
Gemini 3	Gus Grissom	Second and last	1	USAF	Young (left), Grissom (right).	John Young	First of six	2	USN
Gemini 4	James McDivitt	First of two	2	USAF	White (left), McDivitt (right).	Ed White	First and only	2	USAF
Gemini 5	Gordon Cooper	Second and last	1	USAF	Conrad (left), Cooper (right).	Pete Conrad	First of four	2	USN
Gemini 7	Frank Borman	First of two	2	USAF	Lovell (left), Borman (right).	Jim Lovell	First of four	2	USN
Gemini 6A	Wally Schirra	Second of three	1	USN	Stafford (left), Schirra (right).	Tom Stafford	First of four	2	USAF
Gemini 8	Neil Armstrong	First of two	2	Civilian^[b]	Scott (left), Armstrong (right).	David Scott	First of three	3	USAF
Gemini 9A	Tom Stafford	Second of four	2	USAF	Stafford (left), Cernan (right).	Gene Cernan	First of three	3	USN
Gemini 10	John Young	Second of six	2	USN	Young (left), Collins (right).	Michael Collins	First of two	3	USAF
Gemini 11	Pete Conrad	Second of four	2	USN	Gordon (left), Conrad (right).	Richard Gordon	First of two	3	USN
Gemini 12	Jim Lovell	Second of four	2	USN	Aldrin (left), Lovell (right).	Buzz Aldrin	First of two	3	USAF

Key

Later walked on the Moon as an Apollo astronaut

Later flew to the Moon as an Apollo astronaut, without landing

Later flew a low-Earth orbit mission as an Apollo astronaut

Performed no later spaceflights

Later killed in the Apollo 1 disaster

Notes

1. Sixteen astronauts filled twenty crew positions, over ten two-man missions. Young, Conrad, Lovell and Stafford each made their first spaceflights as junior Pilots before being promoted to Command Pilots on the program's last four missions.
2. Armstrong had served in the US Navy and United States Navy Reserve from 1949 to 1960, but was retired from active duty when he became a NASA astronaut.^[4]

References

1. Williams, David (December 30, 2004). "The Gemini Program (1962–1966)". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. NASA.
2. "Gemini". Astronautix. Wade, Mark. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
3. Clark, Amy (March 14, 1993). "Activities Honor Gemini Astronauts". Florida Today. Cocoa, Florida. p. 41 – via Newspapers.com.
4. "Ex-Lieutenant (junior grade) Neil Alden Armstrong, U.S. Naval Reserve, Transcript of Naval Service" (PDF). United States Navy. March 27, 1967. (PDF) from the original on May 6, 2017. Retrieved February 28, 2018.