Astronaut Charles Conrad, command pilot of the Gemini 11 mission, climbs from the spacecraft minutes after splashdown. Astronaut Richard F. Gordon, pilot, still has his hatch closed. The U.S. Navy frogman team attached the yellow flotation collar to the spacecraft after splashdown.
Gemini 11 landed in the Atlantic Ocean at 9 a.m. on September 15, 1966.
The United States beat the Soviet Union in the race to produce artificial gravity. During the Gemini 11 mission, artificial gravity was created by attaching the Gemini capsule to the Agena Target Vehicle with a 36 meter tether and then rotating the capsule around it.
The rotation rate was about 0.15 rpm. The Crew at a distance of 19 meters from the center of rotation experienced 0.0005g of artificial gravity.
