Gemini 12 40th Anniversary

On November 11, 2006, NASA wanted to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Gemini 12.

The mission was commanded by Jim Lovell (of Apollo 13 fame).. and piloted by Buzz Aldrin (of Apollo 11 fame)

Gemini 12 was the last Gemini mission; and was designed to perform rendezvous and docking with the Agena target vehicle, and conduct three Extravehicular Activity (EVA) operations... common practices today with the International Space Station... but still had not been perfected before Gemini 12, and vital to docking with the Lunar Module for the trip to the moon during Apollo.

Needless to say the mission was a success.

In researching the mission I was surprised to find so little footage... but I did discover a whole host of photographs.

I decided on a "reminiscing" theme for the project. I created a graphic blueprint containing various elements in the Gemini mission. Then, in Adobe After Effects I moved the camera around the blue print.

I took the images and made them look like printed photographs. I then had the photos, in the order of the mission, dissolve on as the camera panned by.

Everything in this piece is a cut out graphic... including the capsule traveling in space at the beginning. I felt it was a creative way of adding movement and life to what was essentially a group of still images.

This piece allows the viewer to be exposed to not only a part of NASA history, but human history as well.

Mark R. Hailey
Art Director, NASA Television

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• mrhailey
• NASA
• lovell
• aldrin
• gemini
• space
• orbit
• earth
• docking
• agena
• tvspace
• hailey

[vitoduval]

The upcoming Hubble Servicing Mission will be using new tools to perform unprecedented repairs in space, continuing to build on the foundation of Gemini 12.

[scifiradioguy]

Bravo!

Not many people realized that Dr. Aldrin's success in finding a way to successfully work in a weightless environment was a key factor in meeting President Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon by 1970.

It seemed only fitting that he had a seat on Apollo 11.

[mjanovec]

The Spacecraft Films DVD set for Project Gemini has nearly two hours of footage from NASA archives for the mission...including ingress, launch, EVAs, and recovery. All in very high quality. There is enough there to make a good 30 minute documentary, if one wanted to!