Crewed spacecraftRecovered
Gemini IV
Gemini spacecraft
Vehicle and mission dossier
Gemini IV
Gemini 4 carried James McDivitt and Ed White for four days, more than doubling the duration of any previous American crewed mission. An early attempt to approach the spent Titan II showed how difficult orbital would be without precise procedures and navigation. White then left the cabin for 23 minutes using a handheld maneuvering gun, becoming the first American to walk in space. The flight tested crew endurance, life support, tracking, experiments, and a new center while giving NASA both a landmark success and hard operational lessons for later rendezvous missions.
Flight profile
- Launch
- June 3, 1965
- Landing
- June 7, 1965
- Mission duration
- 97 hours, 56 minutes, 12 seconds
- Orbits
- 62
Places and recovery
Vehicle record
- Manufacturer
- McDonnell
- Status
- Recovered after
- Mission type
- Crewed long-duration, EVA, and rendezvous-learning mission
- Program
- Project Gemini
- Crew complement
- 2
- Backup crew
- Frank Borman and James A. Lovell Jr.
- EVA duration
- Approximately 23 minutes outside the spacecraft
- Program milestone
- First American EVA and first four-day U.S. crewed flight
- Outcome
- Endurance and EVA objectives completed; stage rendezvous attempt discontinued
Flight objectives
- Operate the Gemini spacecraft and its two-person crew for four days to extend American endurance and evaluate systems over a multi-day mission.
- Approach and station keep with the Titan II second to gather practical experience.
- Conduct the first American and evaluate the pressure suit, umbilical, handheld maneuvering unit, and crew procedures outside the cabin.
- Complete medical, navigation, radiation, photography, and spacecraft experiments before guided and recovery.
Flight timeline
- June 3, 1965Gemini 4 begins America's first four-day flightMcDivitt and White reach orbit as Houston's new Center assumes full flight-control responsibility.
- First orbitFailed pursuit teaches a lessonRepeated attempts to approach the Titan stage consume propellant and demonstrate why orbital rendezvous needs calculated phasing maneuvers.
- June 3, 1965Ed White becomes the first American to walk in spaceWhite uses a handheld maneuvering unit and the spacecraft umbilical during roughly 23 minutes outside Gemini 4.
- June 7, 1965Four-day endurance objective completedGemini 4 lands in the Atlantic after 62 orbits, returning a large body of systems and human-performance data.
People Who Flew Aboard This Spacecraft
Photo Archive
Documented views of this individual vehicle, with source and credit retained alongside each image.