90. [Gemini VI-A] FIRST RENDEZ-VOUS IN SPACE: Gemini VII spacecraft orbiting over the cloud-covered Earth, at 17,000 mph Thomas Stafford, 15-16 December 1965 Printed 1965. Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image S-65-63112]. Numbered "NASA S-65-63112" in red in the top margin, with "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas). 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.) Historical context A great photograph of Gemini VII orbiting the Earth, 180 feet away from Gemini VI-A. "The sight was utterly fantastic—to fly in close formation as we have done for many years in fighter aircraft. But at 17,000 miles an hour. The photo illustrates that man can control a space vehicle with precision in close vicinity to another space vehicle." — Thomas Stafford (Cortright, p. 165) Stafford took the photograph with a Hasselblad 500C camera and its 80mm lens using Kodak SO 217 film with an ASA of 64. Literature The View from Space: American Astronaut Photography 1962-1972, Schick and Van Haaften, p. 50