Launch of first crewed gemini flight

March 23, 1965: NASA developed, tested and flew transformative capabilities and cutting-edge technologies in the Gemini programme that paved the way for not only Apollo, but the achievements of the space shuttle, building the International Space Station and setting the stage for human exploration of Mars.

The first crewed Gemini flight, Gemini III, lifted off Launch Pad 19 at 9:24 a.m. EST on March 23, 1965. The spacecraft "Molly Brown" carried astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, command pilot, and John W. Young, pilot, on three orbits of Earth.

NASA's two-man Gemini spaceflights demonstrated that astronauts could change their capsule's orbit, remain in space for at least two weeks and work outside their spacecraft.