Gemini 9A Augmented Target Docking Adapter Launch Poster

An Augmented Target Docking Adapter ATDA atop an Atlas launch vehicle is launched from Kennedy Space Centre's Pad 14 at 10 a.m., June 1, 1966. Gemini 9A was the seventh crewed Earth-orbiting spacecraft of the Gemini series. It carried astronauts Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan. Primary mission objectives were to demonstrate (1) rendezvous techniques and docking with a target vehicle to simulate manuevers to be carried out on future Apollo missions, (2) an ExtraVehicular Activity (EVA) spacewalk to test the Astronaut Manoeuvring Unit (AMU), and (3) precision landing capability. Scientific objectives included obtaining zodiacal light and airglow horizon photographs. Two micrometeorite studies were to be carried out, and there were also one medical and two technological experiments.