Capsule, Gemini, Static Test Article #7

This unmanned boilerplate test vehicle was used to develop the parachute recovery system for Project Gemini. Gemini was the second U.S. human spaceflight program; in 1965 and 1966, NASA launched ten two-man Gemini spacecraft to gain experience with rendezvous, long-duration flight and spacewalking, all necessary to meet President Kennedy's goal of landing on the moon before the decade was out. This boilerplate was dropped from an aircraft eight times to test different parachute configurations in 1963-1964. Records of these tests are stenciled on the side of the test vehicle.

In 1970, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration transferred this boilerplate capsule to the Smithsonian. It was restored in 1991, and the missing cylindrical nose section was replaced with a replica.