129 a
Michael Collins

The Agena 10 target docking vehicle over the Earth

Gemini X, July 18-21, 1966, orbit 4

Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso, numbered “NASA S-66-46123” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin

129 b
Michael Collins or John Young

The Agena 10 docked with the spacecraft over the Earth

Gemini X, July 18-21, 1966

Two vintage chromogenic prints on fiber-based Kodak paper, each 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the versos, numbered “NASA S-66-46144 and S-66-45697” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin, the first with NASA MSC caption on the verso
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

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Lot Essay

129 a
The photograph was taken with the Super Wide Hasselblad camera and its 38mm lens, showing the Agena 10 satellite at a range of about 51 feet. The U.S. flag is clearly visible on the Agena.

Not only did Michael Collins and John Young successfully meet their Agena 10 target docking vehicle, but they would also manage to meet with the dormant, drifting Agena 8 from the aborted Gemini VIII flight, thus executing the program’s first double rendezvous.

129 b
Gemini X was the first mission to perform a perfect docking but also to fire the Agena 10’s own rocket, allowing the spacecraft to reach higher orbits and allowing Collins and Young to see the Earth from a higher elevation than any human beings ever had.

“The Agena is controlling our attitude, a convenient way of keeping us level, but one which doesn’t allow a very good look at the world below,” observed Young. “That little piece of blue and white in the lower corner was all the scenery we saw for a day and a half” (Cortright, p. 174).

The first photograph was taken with the Super Wide Hasselblad camera and its 38mm lens.

“The Gemini X spacecraft is successfully docked with the Agena Target Docking Vehicle 5005. The Agena display panel is clearly visible. After docking with the Agena, John Young and Michael Collins fired the 16,000-pound thrust engine of Agena 10’s primary propulsion system to boost the combined vehicles into an orbit with an apogee of 413 nautical miles to set a new altitude record for manned spaceflight” (NASA caption, first photograph).

The second photograph was taken with the 70mm Maurer space camera and its 80mm lens showing the Agena 10 docked to the spacecraft (right), Straits of Gibraltar, Spain-Portugal in background, Morocco-Algeria in foreground.