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| Mission Insignia | |
|---|---|
| Mission Statistics | |
| Mission Name: | Gemini 2 |
| Call Sign: | Gemini 2 |
| Number of Crew: | 0 |
| Launch: | January 19, 1965 14:03:59.861 UTC Cape Canaveral LC 19 |
| Landing: | January 19, 1965 14:22:14 UTC 16° 36'N, 49° 46' W |
| Duration: | 18 minutes, 16 seconds |
| Orbits: | Suborbital |
| Apogee: | 171.2 km |
| Distance Traveled: | 3,422.4 km |
| Mass: | 3,133.9 kg |
| Gemini 2 | |
Gemini 2 was an unmanned flight in the U.S. Gemini program. Gemini 2 was launched on a Titan II rocket. The flight was a suborbital test of various systems. It later became the first spacecraft flown into space twice when it was sent on an unmanned military mission.
The Titan II/Gemini launch vehicle had to be dismantled to protect it from 2 hurricanes in August and September of 1964. The 2nd stage of the vehicle was taken down and stored in a hanger on 26 August 1964 in preparation for Hurricane Cleo, but the entire launch vehicle was dismantled and removed from Pad 19 in early September before Hurricane Dora passed over Cape Canaveral on September 9th. The Gemini launch vehicle was erected for the final time on 12 September 1964.
Many ground tests were carried out on the Gemini 2 and Titan rocket in November, 1964. On November 24, 1964, Gemini-Titan (GT) 2 successfully completed the Wet Mock Simulated Launch, a full-scale countdown exercise which included propellant loading. Procedures for flight crew suiting and spacecraft ingress were practiced during simulated launch. The primary Gemini-Titan 3 flight crew donned the training suits and full biomedical instrumentation, assisted by the space suit bioinstrumentation and aeromedical personnel who would participate in the GT-3 launch operation. As a result of this practice operation, it was established that all physical examinations, bioinstrumentation sensor attachment, and suit donning would be done in the pilot ready room at complex 16. (See photo of GT-3 crew leaving GT-2 launch simulation).
Gemini II had been scheduled for launch December 9, 1964. On that date the countdown reached zero and the stage one engines were ignited. The launch vehicle's Malfunction Detection System detected technical problems due to a loss of Gemini 1.
The Gemini 2 reentry module was refurbished and flown again on November 3, 1966 in a test flight for the U.S. Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. It was launched on a Titan IIIC rocket on 33-minute suborbital flight from LC-40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
It is currently on display at the U.S. Air Force Space Museum, Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida. Its guidance computer is held at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
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