NASA - Lot 19

NASA GEMINI IV Mission Five photographs taken from the Gemini IV spacecraft, including the following views: - The Arabian Peninsula - The Red Sea - Nile Valley, south-east Egypt Vintage prints on "A Kodak Paper", NASA text on back, NASA numbering in black/red/blue in upper margin. Dated June 3, 1965. 25.5 x 20.5 cm with margins. Marginal handling marks. Some scratched. Following on from the Mercury program and paving the way for the Apollo program, Gemini was NASA's second manned flight program (12 flights between 1964 and 1966, 10 of them manned). Gemini Titan IV (GT-4) was the second manned mission of the Gemini program. Following Grissom and Young's GT-3 flight in March 1965 (3 orbits for almost 5 hours), James McDivitt and Edward White successfully completed a 4-day, 62-orbit flight between June 3 and 7, 1965. The Gemini IV mission went down in space history as the first extra-vehicular activity (EVA) by an American astronaut. The duration of the flight was also used to carry out scientific experiments, including taking pictures of the Earth from space to further meteorological research. Through their portholes, the two astronauts took numerous photographs of the earth. In addition to their scientific interest, these images enabled a wide public to imagine what the Earth might look like from space. The Gemini IV program was the first spacewalk by an American.