Photos: Gemini 3 space flight 50-year anniversary
From the Space exploration galleries series
On March 23, 1965, the first manned mission in NASA's Gemini program completed three orbits around the earth aboard their spacecraft nicknamed "Molly Brown."
The two man crew of John Young and Virgil Grissom, successfully tested the new maneuverable Gemini spacecraft and reached their splash down point 4 hours, 52 minutes after the flight.
GEMINI PRORAM GRISSOM YOUNG
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U.S.astronauts Virgil I. Grissom, foreground, and his copilot John W. Young, rear, recline in their contour couchseats in Gemini III spacecraft as a unidentified technician looks on, only a few miutes before the capsule is sealed and the liftoff begins at Cape Kennedy, Fla., March 23, 1965.
GEMINI CAPSULE
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Astronauts Virgil Grissom, left, and John Young settle into the Gemini 3 capsule at Cape Kennedy, Florida, March 23, 1965. They piloted the first space craft to change its orbital path.
Artist Astronauts
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Artist Norman Rockwell, center, talks with astronauts John W. Young, left, and Virgil Grissom, right, at Cape Kennedy in Florida in 1964. The two pilots have been selected to fly the first manned Gemini orbital flight scheduled for 1965 when they will co-pilot Gemini III. Rockwell was doing a series of paintings at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Cape Kennedy spaceport.
GEMINI III LIFTOFF CAPE KENNEDY
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The Titan 11 rocket with the Gemini III spacecraft at its nose lifts off from Pad 19 at Cape Kennedy, Fla., March 23, 1965.
March 24, 1965 front page.jpg
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JOHN YOUNG WITH FAMIY
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The family of Astronaut John W. Young beams proudly from an automobile during a trimphant parade in Cocoa Beach, Florida. The parade celebrated the successful historic flight of Gemini 3, America's first two-man spacecraft.
GUS GRISSOM WITH FAMILY
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Happily reunited at Cape Kennedy after Major Virgil "Gus" Grissom's historic three-orbital flight around earth, Betty Grissom and her sons Scott 14, and Mark 11, (foreground) posed with their now famous husband and father.
JOHN W. YOUNG; VIRGIL I. GRISSOM
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Astrounaut John W. Young makes a telephone call as his partner from the space mission Gemini 3, Virgil I. Grissom sits next to him after their return to earth.
Virgil I. Grissom
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US American President Lyndon B. Johnson, right, shakes hands with both astronauts simultaneously, welcoming John W. Young, left, and Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom, back on earth after they returned from their successful NASA space mission Gemini 3, March 26, 1965.
GRISSOM SLAYTON AND YOUNG WITH SCHIRRA
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Astronauts "Gus" Grissom, "Deke" Slayton and John Young ((left to right), get a kick out of Wally Schirra clowning in an old fashioned space suit liner.
In this Series
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Moonshot at 50: A look back at the Apollo space missions
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Photos: Celebrating the beginning of human space flight
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