[Project Gemini]

Originally from the personal collection of Dr. George E. Mueller (1918-2015).

AN ARCHIVE OF IMAGES FROM THE GEMINI PROGRAM, ORIGINALLY FROM THE COLLECTION OF "THE MAN WHO PUT MEN ON THE MOON"

Hailed as “The Man who put Men on the Moon” and the “Father of the Manned Spacecraft Program,” Dr. George Mueller played a pivotal role at NASA from 1963-1969. Mueller led the Office of Manned Spaceflight at NASA Headquarters, what is now the Human Operations and Exploration Mission Directorate. In this role, he shaped all operations leading to the fulfillment of President Kennedy’s ambitious goal of a lunar landing by the end of the decade. The breadth of what these operations entailed is referenced in this lot. 

Mueller was sworn in in 1963, right as the Gemini flight operations were gearing up. This chapter of his legendary career at NASA is represented here in detail. Regarded as a bridge between the Mercury and Apollo missions, the Gemini program featured the launch of  twelve flight crews under Mueller’s tenure.

Gemini laid the groundwork for Apollo by testing whether intravehicular and extravehicular activity was possible in space. The one hundred and sixty images between the two binders in this lot demonstrate the preparations of both humans and spacecraft instruments necessary to reach the lofty goal of boots on the Moon. A former professor before his tenure as deputy administrator, Mueller did not believe in asking others to execute tasks he would not be willing to do himself. Before the first extravehicular activities (EVAs) took place in space by Gemini astronauts, Mueller himself flew in a KC-135 zero gravity aircraft in a pressurized space suit, personally verifying that he could get into and out of the space craft in zero gravity.