First orbital docking (Gemini 8)
Primer acoplamiento orbital (Gemini 8)
- Date
- 16 de marzo de 1966 · confidence high
- Place
- Kennedy Space Center, Florida, United States
- Credited to
- NASA (Neil Armstrong and David Scott)
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Armstrong and Scott docked their Gemini capsule with the Agena target vehicle, the first docking of two craft in orbit. A stuck thruster spun the pair and forced an emergency return.
Gemini 6A and 7 had already made a contact-free orbital rendezvous in December 1965. Soyuz 4 and 5 made the first crew transfer between craft in 1969, and Kosmos 186 and 188 achieved the first automatic docking in 1967. The 'first' depends on what is counted.
What it led to
- rendezvous and docking skills needed for Apollo's lunar orbit rendezvous
- emergency procedures for thruster failure
- the basis for space stations assembled in orbit