Capsule, Static #3, Gemini

McDonnell Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis originally built this Gemini capsule for NASA as Gemini Static #3. It was subjected to launch, reentry, abort, landing, and parachute loads as a part of the testing program for the two-man Gemini capsules, which carried ten astronaut crews into orbit in 1965-66. The capsule was then diverted at the McDonnell plant to the Department of Defense Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program, where it became the Gemini B Engineering Compatibility Vehicle (ECV). The MOL was to be a manned reconnaissance satellite, consisting of a cylindrical laboratory section with a large telescopic camera, and a modified Gemini capsule that would carry the astronauts into orbit and return them to the Earth.

In 1969 the Nixon Administration cancelled the MOL program before it could launch any military astronauts. That same year McDonnell transferred Gemini Static #3 to the Smithsonian for NASA.