Blue Gemini
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Blue Gemini was a United States Air Force project first proposed in August 1962 for a series of seven flights of Gemini spacecraft to enable the Air Force to gain manned spaceflight experience prior to the launch of the Manned Orbital Development System, or MODS. The plan was to utilize off-the-shelf Gemini spacecraft.
Blue Gemini would consist of two NASA missions that would include a USAF co-pilot and would accomplish NASA objectives. These would be followed by two more NASA missions that would have USAF crews. Those missions would be devoted to NASA goals, but would include USAF experiments if possible. The final phase of Blue Gemini would consist of three dedicated USAF missions. One of these would be an Agena rendezvous mission and it was possible that some of these later missions might carry only a single crewmember. The other seat would be occupied by experimental equipment. Possible payloads included an Astronaut Maneuvering Unit that would allow an astronaut to maneuver around the spacecraft, an advanced navigation system, an erectable structure, and a large ground mapping radar. The plan was to end Blue Gemini missions approximately four months before the debut of the MODS space station.
Blue Gemini was cancelled in January 1961 by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara after he decided that military experiments could be carried aboard some NASA missions, including the then-embryonic Space Shuttle program. McNamara also cancelled MODS at the same time.
In December 1963 McNamara likewise approved the development of a Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) which was essentially a revived MODS. Blue Gemini should not be confused with the Gemini B spacecraft that was developed for MOL. Gemini B included a tunnel through its heat shield to enable the astronauts to reach the MOL spacecraft.
Some critics of the Space Shuttle program, noting the forced suspensions of American manned spaceflight after the loss of shuttles Challenger and Columbia, have argued that had Blue Gemini been pursued, NASA would not have been left so dependent upon Russian spacecraft.
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