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| A Gemini 11 cover from "Orbit Covers" featuring a launch day postmark. It is signed by Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon and was canceled in Cape Canaveral on the launch day, September 12, 1966. |
Gemini 11 (GT-11), launched on September 12, 1966, was the ninth crewed flight of the Gemini program, featuring astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr. and Richard F. Gordon Jr. The crew achieved the first direct-ascent rendezvous in the first orbit, successfully docking with the Agena Target Vehicle just 1 hour and 34 minutes after liftoff.
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| Photo: The Gemini 11 crew, Richard Gordon and Charles Conrad. |
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| Photo: Charles Conrad looks back to observe the technicians working on the hatch that was not sealed properly. |
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| Photo: A double exposure captured on the same film, featuring the launch of the Agena Atlas rocket followed by the launch of the Gemini 11 Titan rocket on September 12, 1966. |
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| Two covers featuring the official NASA cachet for Gemini 11, with one having a Kennedy Space Center machine cancellation and the other a hand cancellation, both postmarked on launch day, September 12, 1966. The top cover is signed by Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon. |
Richard Gordon conducted two extra-vehicular activities (EVAs), totaling 2 hours and 41 minutes. The first EVA involved attaching a 100-foot tether, stored in the Agena's docking collar, to the Gemini's docking bar for a passive stabilization experiment. Although he accomplished this task, the prolonged effort was more exhausting than in ground simulations, leading to a termination of the EVA after just half an hour. In his second EVA, Gordon stood with his head and shoulders out of the hatch to photograph the Earth, clouds, and stars, which was not tiring and lasted over two hours.
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| Photo: Richard Gordon approaches the Gemini 11 cabin after finishing an extravehicular experiment, during which he tethered the spacecraft to an unmanned Agena target at an altitude of 160 miles above the Earth, while flying over the Atlantic Ocean. |
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| Photo: A 100-foot tether connecting the Gemini 11 spacecraft to the Agena target, demonstrating the feasibility of linking two spacecraft together to conserve fuel. |
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| A Gemini 11 launch cover from "SpaceCraft Swanson," postmarked on launch day, September 12, 1966. It is signed by Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon. |
The mission concluded with the first fully automatic, computer-controlled reentry by the U.S., successfully bringing Gemini 11 down just 2.8 miles (4.5 km) from the recovery ship USS Guam, and only 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the intended target location.
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| Photo:The Gemini 11 crew capturing photographs of the Earth during their mission. |
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| A Gemini 11 NASA cachet proof (in maroon) on a cover postmarked at Cape Canaveral on the recovery day, September 15, 1966. |
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| Photo: Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon exiting their Gemini 11 capsule following splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. |
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| A USS Guam crew cover featuring a Beck rubber-stamped cachet, mailed from the ship on September 15, 1966. |
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| Photo: A recovery helicopter lifts Charles "Pete" Conrad, command pilot of the record-setting Gemini 11, from the capsule for transfer to the USS Guam recovery ship. Conrad and Richard Gordon achieved a near-pinpoint landing in the Atlantic Ocean using automatic controls. |
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| Two Gemini 11 USS Guam recovery ship covers featuring a Beck rubber-stamped cachet, both postmarked on September 15, 1966. The top cover is hand-signed by Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon, while the bottom cover is hand-signed by Captain Stephen Thomas De La Mater, along with the Gemini crew's autopen signatures. The ship's cachet is located on the back of the covers. |
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| A Beck printed cachet cover B687, postmarked on September 15, 1966, and signed by Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon. |
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| Beck printed cachet covers B683 and B687 were assigned for the USS Guam recovery ship; however, some B684 and B686 covers with a USS Guam cancellation have also been discovered. |
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| A Gemini 11 USS Guam Captain's cover with printed signatures of the crew, postmarked on September 15, 1966.
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(Reference from
Gemini 11)
