The year 1966 saw the peak and the end of the

Gemini program Project Gemini () was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual ...

. The program proved that docking in space and human EVA's could be done safely. It saw the first launch of the

Saturn IB rocket The Saturn IB (also known as the uprated Saturn I) was an American launch vehicle commissioned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the Apollo program. It uprated the Saturn I by replacing the S-IV second stage (, 43, ...

, an important step in the Apollo program, and the launch of

Luna 9 Luna 9 (Луна-9), internal designation Ye-6 No.13, was an uncrewed space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. On 3 February 1966, the Luna 9 spacecraft became the first spacecraft to achieve a survivable landing on a celestial bod ...

, the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on a celestial object (the Moon).

Launches

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January

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February

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March

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April

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May

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June

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July

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August

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September

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October

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November

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December

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Gemini and Apollo launches

Deep Space Rendezvous

EVAs

References

Footnotes

{{Orbital launches in 1966 Spaceflight by year