Gemini Meets Agena: The First Docking Experiments in Space

This striking close-up captures a Gemini spacecraft during docking with the Agena target vehicle, one of NASA’s pioneering experiments in orbital rendezvous. Conducted in the mid-1960s, these Gemini-Agena missions proved essential techniques like docking, orbital maneuvering, and extended spaceflights. These skills became the stepping stones to Apollo, enabling astronauts to later dock with lunar modules and return from the Moon. The reflective helmet of the astronaut adds a human element to this highly technical moment in space history.