Launch from Cape Canaveral; landing 850 km
east of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean.
The main objectives of this
mission were again to dock with the Agena target vehicle and to perform a
spacewalk. The mission patch was drawn by Barbara Young (John
Young's wife at the time).
The docking with the
unmanned Agena target vehicle
GATV-10 was successfull, even it was need more fuel
than planned. So, planned more docking and redocking maneuvers were not
performed. During the docking the
GATV-10 primary propulsion system was used to raise
the dual spacecraft apogee to 764 km (a new record).
Two
EVAs
were performed by Michael
Collins. The first was a standup-
EVA on
July 19, 1966 (0h 38m) and Michael
Collins began photographing stellar UV radiation. After more
44 hours the Gemini spacecraft separated from the
GATV-10. The Gemini used its own thrusters to complete
the second rendezvous some three hours later with the
GATV-8 target vehicle. After a couple more correction
burns they were station keeping 3 meters away from the Agena. Then the second
EVA
on July 20, 1966 (0h 49m) was performed by Michael
Collins. First he retrieved a micro meteorite experiment
mounted on the Gemini 10 spacecraft, but he lost it, when it floated out of the
cabin during the
EVA.
He then walked from the Gemini spacecraft to the Agena target vehicle to
retrieve the second micrometeorite package left in space all those months.
While doing this he lost grip in space walk from Gemini to Agena, tumbled head
over heels at end of umbilical around Gemini. Michael
Collins needed a second attempt using the hand-held gun to
turn back to the Agena, save the package and retrieved it. Returning into the
capsule was difficult, because Michael
Collins had gotten himself tangled in the umbilical. During
this
EVA he lost his camera.
The crew performed all
in all 14 experiments, including experiments to test the radiation, a
navigation experiment and others. The reentry was performed without any
problems. The recovery ship was the
USS
Guadalcanal.