NASA launched Gemini 11 carrying astronauts Pete Conrad and Richard Gordon on a three-day mission that included docking with an Agena target vehicle within their first orbit and using its engine to reach a record altitude of 850 miles above Earth. Gordon also conducted a spacewalk to attach a tether between the two spacecraft, testing techniques essential for future space station operations.
The mission's first-orbit rendezvous and docking with the uncrewed Agena target vehicle demonstrated a maneuver NASA needed perfected before attempting anything as complex as a lunar landing, where astronauts would have no margin for multiple failed docking attempts. Conrad and Gordon pulled it off on their very first orbit, a feat that impressed even skeptical mission planners.
Richard Gordon's spacewalk to attach a 100-foot tether between Gemini and the Agena proved exhausting and difficult, his heart rate spiking as he wrestled with the unwieldy line in a pressurized suit with limited mobility, a persistent problem throughout the early Gemini spacewalks that revealed how poorly NASA understood the physical demands of working in vacuum.
Using the Agena's engine, the crew pushed their orbit to a record 850 miles, far higher than any human had traveled before and a record for Earth orbital altitude that stood for decades. The mission also tested automated reentry procedures, another crucial step toward the precision landings Apollo would require.