Project Gemini DVD Set First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Before man travelled to the moon, we needed to verify our understanding of orbital mechanics and operations in zero gravity. Project Mercury started the manned flight learning curve with a single astronaut in space. In the initial flights orbital velocity wasn't achieved, so the flight was little more than a ballistic ride out of the atmosphere.

With Project Gemini, a larger capsule was employed with more room provided in an exterior module for life support and experiments. In these flights, astronauts learned to use orbital thrusters to alter their orbital profiles. These lessons led to orbital rendezvous with Agena, rendezvous with another Gemini, and finally docking with Agena. These lessons proved that these spacecraft could be docked and undocked at will, and this was the stepping stone for Apollo to dock with the LEM, travel to the moon, undock, land the LEM, recover the LEM and re-dock.

This video package from 20th Century Fox is a collection of the movie footage taken from the ground and in space from Gemini 8, 9A, 10, 11 and 12. The package consists of three DVDs that are individually packaged in slim cases and stored together in a common sleeve. Where available, the Capcom audio is presented in time synch with the video and commentary from the astronauts that was recorded at one of their debriefing sessions is also provided.

This series has been available now for a few years, but it recently caught my attention when I saw one of the other titles in this series on sale at Sam's Club. I purchased this one via Amazon and was impressed just how quickly they can deliver!

If you're looking for a better alternative to commercial-laden one-hour documentaries on television, this set is the next best thing to being there as you'll witness the long silences as well as the flurry of activities, just as the astronauts experienced them so many years ago.