Aiming for the Moon and unmanned probesAmerica Reaches Further Than Ever Before
By the beginning of 1964, NASA had worked out the basic plan for a mission to the Moon. Two spacecraft would be required: a command ship to ferry three astronauts to and from the Moon, and a bug-like lunar lander that would take them down to the surface and then back into orbit around the Moon. However, NASA scientists were unsure if astronauts would be able to handle the trip: whether they could survive a trip of a week or longer, if they could work with only a pressurized space suit to protect them from the vacuum of space, or if they could master the orbital rendezvous in which one spacecraft crew would chase down another. The Gemini spacecraft was a major advance over the Mercury. Gemini was to have the ability of changing the shape and orientation of its orbit around the Earth. It would be the first spacecraft to have a computer on board. Re-entry through the atmosphere could be controlled to reach a predetermined splashdown point.
 Meanwhile, the Russians were continuing with their space program. In October 1964, cosmonauts Boris Yegorov and spacecraft design engineer Konstantin Feoktistov spent a day in orbit inside a new craft called Voskhod 1. In March 1965, Voskhod 2 reached orbit, with Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonev. Early in the flight, Leonev entered a collapsible airlock, sealed himself off from mission commander Belyayev, and emerged into the vacuum of space. Leneonev floated outside Voshkhod 2 for about ten minutes, secured to the ship by an umbilical line. Despite this great accomplishment, however, the Russians would not send any more Humans into space that year or the following year.
The U.S. space program moved forward. Every two months, a new Gemini team rocketed into orbit. In June 1965, Gemini 4’s Ed White walked in space for about 20 minutes, using a nitrogen-powered maneuvering gun to propel himself part of the time. In August, Gemini 5’s Gordon Cooper and Peter Conrad set a new space endurance record after spending eight days in orbit. In December, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell spent 14 days in orbit on Gemini 7. The highlight of their mission came when Gemini 6’s Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford joined them in orbit. Schirra and Stafford steered the Gemini 6 to within a foot of the Gemini 7, the first space rendezvous in Human history. By the end of 1965, the Americans had surpassed the Russians in the Human spaceflight experience.
The U.S. was taking the lead in the robotic space exploration as well. In December 1962, the Mariner 2 probe made Earth's first reconnaissance of another planet when it flew by cloud-obscured Venus, revealing that Venus’ surface temperature was hot enough to melt lead. In July 1965, Mariner 4 sent back the first close-up images of Mars, showing a desolate, cratered surface.
The Moon received the most intense scrutiny. NASA began with a series of crash-landers called Ranger which sent back close-up images before impacting the surface. In 1966 the first of the Surveyor soft-landers arrived on the Moon, a few months after the Russian’s Luna 9 probe landed and transmitted panoramic views of dust and rocks. Five Surveyors made successful landings between 1966 and 1968. They sent back thousands of detailed images. Some provided data on the Moon’s chemical composition, probing the surface directly with a mechanical scoop. Five lunar orbital probes, equipped with telescopic cameras, created detailed maps of the Moon from above.
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