The Gemini 8 Mission Was His First Journey

On September 20, 1965, the Gemini 8 crew assignments were made. The backup crew for one flight would have been the primary crew for the third mission in the standard rotation method, but Slayton chose David Scott to be the Gemini 8 pilot. After being chosen on October 18, 1963, Scott became the first of the third set of astronauts to be assigned to a prime crew. See was chosen to pilot Gemini 9. From that point forward, a member of Armstrong's team would command each Gemini mission, with a member of Scott's team serving as the pilot. This time, Richard F. Gordon Jr. would fly Armstrong, and Conrad would serve as his backup.

Armstrong became the first American citizen in space on the Gemini 8 mission and Valentina Tereshkova, from the Soviet Union, had already made history three years earlier as the first civilian and woman in space. Despite being the most challenging mission to date, the Gemini program accomplished the first-ever docking of two spacecraft. However, the ship began to spin so quickly during the docking process that it was turning once every second. When Armstrong reluctantly activated the reentry control system, the astronauts knew they had to end their mission and return to Earth right now.