Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 performed the first controlled rendezvous in Earth orbit. At 8:37 in the morning, the Gemini 6 rocket was launched from Cape Kennedy with Wally Schirra and Thomas P. Stafford on board, then gradually adjusted its course to match the orbital path of Gemini 7, which had been sent up 11 days earlier with Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. By 2:27 in the afternoon, the two craft were six feet apart from each other, their closest approach and remained at the same speed until Gemini 6 moved away at 7:05 in the evening. A later report said that the two spacecraft had come within one foot of each other at one time during their rendezvous. McDonnell Aircraft orbital mechanics engineer Marvin Czarnick would later be given credit was the single most responsible for the successful calculations that led to the linkup.
