Following the Gemini XII splashdown on Nov. 15, 1966, astronauts Buzz Aldrin, left, and Jim Lovell are welcomed aboard the recovery aircraft carrier, USS Wasp, concluding their four-day mission. Gemini XII was the final flight of the Gemini program, a bridge between the Mercury and Apollo programs, designed to test equipment and mission procedures in Earth orbit and to train astronauts and ground crews for missions to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s.
Further Reading: Gemini XII Crew Masters the Challenges of Spacewalks
Gemini XII’s command pilot, Jim Lovell, served on the 14-day Gemini VII mission in December 1965. A Naval aviator, he went on to be a member of the Apollo 8 crew, the first mission to orbit astronauts around the moon in 1968. As commander of Apollo 13 in 1970, Lovell became the first person to travel in space four times. Buzz Aldrin went on to serve as lunar module pilot on Apollo 11 in 1969, during which he and Neil Armstrong become the first humans to walk on the moon.
Image Credit: NASA