Before the Moon Landing: How Neil Armstrong Saved NASA
In July, the world will mark 50 years since Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. But this month marks the anniversary of an almost-forgotten mission that, but for the skill of the astronauts on board, could have become a spectacular disaster for NASA. Author James Donovan tells the story in this excerpt adapted from his new book, Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11.
By March 1966, the Gemini program, designed to perfect techniques that would be required for the Apollo lunar landing, was in full swing. The astronauts loved the two-man spacecraft—essentially a larger version of the Mercury capsule, it granted its pilot almost complete control, and the ability to change orbits. Gemini 8 was an especially ambitious three-day mission, since it would involve the first docking of two spacecraft and an extended spacewalk. It was the first spaceflight for both members of the crew: Neil Armstrong and David Scott.
Scott, 33, had become an astronaut in 1963. He had it all: good looks, confidence, a master's in astronautical engineering. He was a fighter pilot's son, a fighter pilot and test pilot himself, and married to the daughter of a retired Air Force general—clearly one of NASA's fair-haired boys, evidenced by the fact that he was the first in his astronaut class chosen to fly in space.
Armstrong, 35, would be the mission's command pilot. The former naval aviator and civilian test pilot had been selected as an astronaut in 1962 after being one of the few men selected to fly the rocket-powered X-15, a sleek, black experimental plane designed to explore the limits of
