Gemini 2
The Gemini - Titan mission 2 (GT- 2) was the start of an unmanned Gemini spacecraft with the Titan rocket on January 19, 1965 at 9:04 clock Est Cape Canaveral.
The primary mission objective was the re-entry test of the Gemini spacecraft into Earth's atmosphere. These sufficed ballistic short flight.
Once in April 1964 were present the results of the successful GT- 1 mission, NASA was confident of being able to send the first manned Gemini mission into space in November of the same year at the latest. In between the reentry test the GT- 2 mission was dated August 24.
End of July, the launcher was erected on the launch number 19 in Cape Canaveral, assembled and connected to the external power supply.
In mid-August 1964, canceled all further tests for the GT- 2 mission. Eyewitnesses reported a possibly took place, violent lightning strike or launch tower at No. 19 An extensive investigation was initiated, but damage and evidence of a direct lightning strike could not be found. Early September was again released.
To the chagrin of NASA technician pulled the end of August even Hurricane Cleo over Cape Canaveral. When the forecast for the beginning of September also announced the Hurricane Dora and Ethel, who already built the Gemini- Titan combination was dismantled and could only from 18 September again be built.
The countdown for the launch of the GT -2 mission was on 9 December 1964 of a second after ignition of the main engines stopped because the automatic control unit noted the drop in hydraulic pressure control system the first stage.
The mission but was then performed without error on 19 January 1965. The ballistic flight brought the Gemini 2 at an altitude of 171 km. 18 minutes and 16 seconds after the start of the landing capsule splashed down in the South Atlantic 3419 km away from the starting point, and was salvaged from the aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain. For the test of the heat shield was complete.
The Gemini 2 spacecraft was worked up after his flight and provided with a hatch in the heat shield to serve as a prototype for the Gemini B spacecraft, which was needed for the MOL project. In this configuration, it was launched on November 3, 1966, a Titan IIIC rocket again on a suborbital flight.