From all I've read, the Gemini was a fantastic spacecraft that had a lot of un-utilized potential. While NASA saw Gemini as a stepping stone to Apollo the Air Force saw it as the workhorse it was.
It's too bad it was relegated to history so quickly. I have read that, unlike the hack that was Mercury, the Gemini was designed to be easy to work on, service — components accessible from the outside of the craft by simply removing an exterior panel or two. And with designs like the Blue Gemini [1] and the Big Gemini [2] the Air Force at least saw it as extensible.
It was the future I was promised, and although military in nature, I am sad nonetheless that it never came to be.
That’s not obviously true. Apollo crested 5% of the budget, and the crazy USA health care system already consumes 17% of GDP. There’s a reason Nixon wound NASA down.
It's too bad it was relegated to history so quickly. I have read that, unlike the hack that was Mercury, the Gemini was designed to be easy to work on, service — components accessible from the outside of the craft by simply removing an exterior panel or two. And with designs like the Blue Gemini [1] and the Big Gemini [2] the Air Force at least saw it as extensible.
It was the future I was promised, and although military in nature, I am sad nonetheless that it never came to be.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Gemini
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Gemini