From concept to reality

Abstract

In the midst of Project Gemini in 1965, Dr. Wernher von Braun, the first Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), arranged an impromptu meeting with some of the astronauts. Most of them had yet to fly into space. The astronauts were among the third group selected by NASA in October of 1963 for Gemini and the upcoming Apollo program. One of the astronauts sitting across from Dr. von Braun was Capt. Eugene Cernan, who was training for his upcoming Gemini IX flight the following year. It was just an informal meeting, but von Braun knew some of the men he was looking at would one day walk on the Moon. The famous rocket scientist had even bigger plans for the astronauts who would eventually realize the long-held dream of traveling to and landing on the Moon. It was at this meeting that the astronauts learned what Dr. von Braun really had in mind.