The solar eclipse seen from Gemini 12. NASA.
The Gemini program was sort of NASA's overlooked middle child. It didn't have the excitement of being the first time American astronauts flew in space like the Mercury did, and it didn't have the glamour of going to the Moon like Apollo. Which means most people don't know it happened. But the Gemini program was how NASA learned to fly in space, to perform rendezvous and docking maneuvers, change orbits, and test all the technologies it would need to complete the two-week long missions to the Moon. It was also the program that first gave astronauts a unique view of a solar eclipse from orbit.
