NASA [Gemini VIII]

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The astronauts walk up the ramp at Cape Kennedy’s Pad 19 during the Gemini VIII prelaunch countdown.

“The personnel, equipment, and facilities employed in the Gemini program have since been integrated into other NASA and Department of Defense manned space flight programs. The technological legacy of the Gemini flights lives on. It is a harbinger of greater achievements both in space and on Earth, achievements with more beneficial results than our generation can now foresee,” wrote George Mueller, NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight (NASA SP-171, foreword).

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Kennedy Space Center’s then Deputy Director forLaunch Operations, Merritt Preston, called the Gemini VIII mission one of the most complex countdowns ever conducted. He explained that there were multiple counts running concurrently involving both the Atlas Agena and Gemini Titan rockets and spacecraft. Additionally, operations were coordinated between Cape Kennedy (now Cape Canaveral) Air Force Station, the Eastern Test Range, Mission Control in Houston and the ground tracking network around the world.

The Agena lifted off at 10 a.m. EST from Launch Pad 14 at the Cape atop an Atlas rocket (second photograph).

An hour and 41 minutes later, Gemini VIII was boosted by a Titan II from Pad 19 just north of the Atlas launch complex (first photograph).

The successful countdown brought high praise from Kennedy Director Kurt Debus. “What the nation could not see was the matchless coordination and competence demonstrated by two launch teams counting down simultaneously these sophisticated vehicles and spacecraft,” he said (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/geminis-first-docking-turns-to-wild-ride-in-orbit).