Gemini 6A and Gemini 7 rendezvous, 1965. View from one spacecraft to the other during rendezvous manoeuvres between Gemini 7 and Gemini 6A spacecraft in orbit. These two spacecraft launched separately, Gemini 7 on 4 December 1965, and Gemini 6A on 15 December 1965. They then manoeuvred to meet in orbit, several hundred kilometres above the Earth's surface. The two spacecraft came within a few metres of each other, but never touched, achieving one of the mission aims of orbital rendezvous. On board Gemini 6A were the US astronauts Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, while on board Gemini 7 were Frank Borman and Jim Lovell.