Gemini III carried the first US two-person crew to orbit
On this day · 23 March 1965
Two astronauts, three orbits, and the first time a crew ever nudged its own spacecraft into a new path around Earth.
At 9:24 a.m. EST on March 23, 1965, Gemini III lifted off from Cape Kennedy carrying Virgil “Gus” Grissom and John Young — the United States’ first two-person spaceflight. The crew nicknamed their capsule Molly Brown, a wink at Grissom’s previous flight, whose spacecraft had sunk after splashdown.
Over three low-Earth orbits, the pair did something no crew had done before: they fired their thrusters to deliberately change their own orbit, the first orbital maneuver by a piloted spacecraft. It was a crucial rehearsal for the rendezvous and docking the Moon landings would demand.
Grissom became the first person to fly into space twice.
The mission is also remembered for a stowaway snack — Young had smuggled a corned-beef sandwich aboard, and the floating crumbs earned the crew a mild scolding back on Earth.
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