95. [Gemini VII] "BEAT ARMY": Gemini VI-A crew holding a sign in the window during the first rendezvous in space Frank Borman or James Lovell, December 4-18, 1965 Printed 1965. Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image S-65-64040]. With "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse, numbered "NASA S-65-64040" in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas). 20.3 x 25.4cm. (8 x 10in.) Historical context The famous 'Beat Army' close-up of Gemini VII during history's first space rendezvous—a critical milestone for the planned lunar missions of Project Apollo, symbolizing the extraordinary precision of spacecraft maneuvering at 17,000 mph. Gemini VI-A and VII were maneuvered, as Schirra later described, "window to window and nose to nose," close enough for the astronauts to wave at each other through the portholes and for Schirra to display a playful "Beat Army" sign—aimed in jest at Borman, the sole West Point graduate among the three Navy pilots aboard the two spacecraft. "They were talking in terms of feet, but we were closer, six to eight inches. That's how deftly the spacecraft could be controlled." Walter Schirra (Schick and Van Haaften, p. 50) Literature LIFE, 7 January 1969, pp. 30-31