The Fascinating Concepts of Advanced Gemini

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NASA's Project Gemini, which ran from 1961 to 1966, was the bridge from Project Mercury to Project Apollo. All tasks astronauts would have to perform on their journey to and from the moon were tested and perfected during Gemini, including rendezvous, docking, extravehicular activities, and eating space food. While the twelve missions of Project Gemini utilized a larger a more sophisticated Mercury capsule, multiple modifications would have allowed the spacecraft to perform versatile missions— everything from docking with a space station to landing on the moon (though this post will not be discussing lunar Gemini proposals).

Gemini 7 spacecraft photographed by Gemini 6A (NASA)

Big Gemini

Big Gemini, also known as Big G, was proposed to provide resupply to space stations. In 1967, it was pitched by McDonnell Douglas to NASA and the US Air Force (USAF), who were both developing their own separate space stations; the Apollo Applications Program Orbital Workshop, which would become Skylab, and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), respectively. Space stations planned for the late 1970s would have been manned by crews of anywhere from six to twenty-four people and would require multiple resupply missions that existing spacecraft could not handle. Big G would have been able to fit nine to twelve astronauts at one time— far more than even the Space Shuttle would carry— as well as twelve metric tons of cargo. Due to its large size, it would have launched on a heavy-lift rocket, such as a Titan IIIM or Saturn INT-20 (neither of which made it past the drawing board). Big G would have the same hatch and heat shield configuration as the Gemini B and the cargo module could be accessed through a pressurized tunnel— no extra-vehicular activity necessary. Additionally, it would have docked aft end first to move cargo in and out of the space station. The crew module would have a volume of 660 cubic feet (19 m³), a length of 38 feet (11.58 m), and a diameter of 14 feet (4.27 m).

The USAF configuration had a cylindrical maneuvering and cargo module so it could fit on Titan boosters. The NASA configuration had a conical module so it could fit atop Saturn rockets. Due to its size, it would have been unable to make a water landing and instead would have returned to a designated site on land using skids and a parasail. If everything was to progress as scheduled, and if Big G received the funding it needed, operational flights would have started by 1971. However, Orbital Workshop 1 (Skylab), which was planned for 1970, would not be operational until 1973. NASA spent the rest of the 1960s and early 1970s landing men on the moon and the MOL program was terminated in June 1969. By this time, the Gemini spacecraft and all the concepts derived from it were obsolete.

Illustrations of the Big Gemini spacecraft for their different launch vehicles

(image credit: Giuseppe Chiara)

A mockup of Big G at the McDonnell Douglas plant (McDonnell Douglas)

Blue Gemini

Blue Gemini was both a spacecraft and a program conceived as a joint USAF/NASA project. Proposed in the summer of 1962, the program’s purpose was to prepare Air Force astronauts to fly Manned Orbital Development System (MODS) missions, the predecessor to the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, by having them fly with NASA Gemini astronauts. After two joint flights, two Air Force astronauts would fly Blue Gemini missions together while still performing tasks for NASA. Finally, three dedicated Blue Gemini missions would finish qualifying Air Force astronauts for long-duration military spaceflight and develop rendezvous and docking procedures for future space station missions.

The Blue Gemini program would have used the same spacecraft NASA's Gemini program used for its twelve flights, but the project's paper lifespan lasted only six months. In January 1963, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara canceled the program after determining the military experiments proposed for Blue Gemini could be flown on NASA missions instead. In December 1963, MODS was revived and renamed to the Manned Orbiting Laboratory.

Gemini B configuration for Blue Gemini at the McDonnell Douglas plant 1968 (McDonnell Douglas)

Gemini B

Gemini B was the most tangible Advanced Gemini proposal because it actually flew in space. It was developed for MOL and was a standard Gemini capsule with a round hatch cut through the heat shield to allow astronauts access to the laboratory attached beneath them. It and the laboratory module would launch together onboard the Titan IIIM launch vehicle and once in orbit, the astronauts would power down the Gemini and enter the lab. When it was time to return to Earth after about forty days in orbit, the crew would power up the Gemini B, separate from the single-use station, and reenter, splashing down in the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean and being retrieved by Navy spacecraft recovery forces. But there was a huge risk that came with using the Gemini B: If the heat shield was not properly intact during reentry, a risk caused by the rear hatch, the crew would burn up and die.

In order to validate the Gemini B's unique hatch and heat shield configuration and the launch configuration for future MOL missions, a prototype was flown. The previously-flown Gemini 2 capsule, formally Gemini Spacecraft No. 2, a decommissioned Titan I first stage oxidizer tank, serving as a mock laboratory designated Orbiting Vehicle 4-3, and a Transtage, or the upper stage of a Titan III rocket, made up the OPS 0855 boilerplate spacecraft. On November 3, 1966, a Titan IIIC rocket, serial number 3C-9, lifted off from Launch Complex 40 on Cape Kennedy and carried OPS 0855 to space. While the Orbiting Vehicle 4-3 stayed in orbit for 30 days, the Gemini B was released onto a suborbital trajectory after launch and became the first capsule to fly in space twice. It was recovered near Ascension Island in the South Atlantic by the USS La Salle. Like with Big Gemini, the Gemini B concept was abandoned after MOL was terminated in June 1969, and the unique test article is now on display at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum at Launch Complex 26 on Cape Canaveral [1].

The Gemini B on display at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum (image credit: Aeryn A.)

Gemini Paraglider

Paraglider Gemini, officially called the Paraglider Landing System Program, was the proposal to use a Rogallo wing and a set of wheels or skids to land the Gemini capsule on the ground after reentry. A Rogallo wing, renamed by NASA to Parawing, is a flexible, two-lobed, self-inflating wing as shown in the picture below. Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Deke Slayton, and Gus Grissom, along with other test pilots, flew NASA's Paresev, short for Paraglider Research Vehicle, a tricycle-shaped, open framework one-man glider under a Rogallo wing. In 1964 and 1965, three manned Gemini Paraglider test articles called Test Tow Vehicles were towed and dropped by helicopter to test the functionality of the Rogallo wing for spacecraft recovery. This method of landing was unfavored due to delays in development and failures in testing, as the final test occurred after the success of Gemini 3 and was no longer of interest to NASA. This is how the Big Gemini capsule would have landed as well.

Flight-tested Gemini Paraglider now on display in the National Air & Space Museum

(National Air & Space Museum)

Winged Gemini

Soon after the cancelation of their X-20 Dynamic Soarer program in 1962, the Air Force proposed the use of a winged Gemini capsule for manned spaceflight. The unique wings were developed and tested during the ASSET program, which stands for Aerothermodynamic Elastic Structural System Environmental Test, and was used to study the overall reliability of winged vehicles in space with emphasis on reentry. However, the Winged Gemini was not designed to maneuver in orbit. To do so, it would have needed to launch on a Titan IIIA or Titan IIIC rocket and use the Transtage for maneuvering. If maneuvering was not a concern, it would have launched on the standard Gemini-Titan II Launch Vehicle NASA used. McDonnell Aircraft also proposed a version of the capsule that would have been capable of a piloted runway landing. The spacecraft Icarus from the 1969 film Planet of the Apes draws inspiration from both the ASSET vehicle and X-20.

A diagram of the Winged Gemini (McDonnell Douglas)

While Advanced Gemini proposed a number of modifications to the Gemini spacecraft, none are as iconic as the baseplate spacecraft itself. Its use in the program gave some of the most famous astronauts their first flights in space and both flown capsules and test articles are on display all across the country.

Author's note: Thanks for reading and be sure to like and share this post! Follow @spaceflighthistories for daily space content.

[1] The museum's original name (the name I grew up with) was the Air Force Space & Missile Museum.

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Bibliography

• Day, Dwayne. “The Big G.” The Space Review: The Big G, 7 Dec. 2015, www.thespacereview.com/article/2879/1.

• Downey, Ron. “McDonnell Winged Gemini Report.” Aviation Archives, 4 Oct. 2019, aviationarchives.blogspot.com/2019/10/mcdonnell-winged-gemini-report.html.

• Hacker, Barton C. and Grimwod, James M. "Blue Gemini." On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini. NASA, 1977. https://web.archive.org/web/20070712182255/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4203/ch6-2.htm

• Teitel, Amy Shira. “The Paraglider: How NASA Tried And Failed To Land Without Parachutes.” Popular Science, 29 Feb. 2016, www.popsci.com/paraglider-how-nasa-tried-and-failed-to-land-without-parachutes/.

• Wade, Mark. Gemini, www.astronautix.com/g/gemini.html.