space program, gemini space program, nasa, astronauts, american astronauts, mercury space flights, apollo 13, the right stuff

The crucial and groundbreaking Gemini missions came after the swaggering heroics of the Mercury flights, immortalized in book and film by The Right Stuff and many other titles, and before the world-changing Apollo program, which of course landed the first men on the moon (and not insignificantly led to another legendary movie, Apollo 13).