The Explorers' Club, № DCCCXXXIX

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 55th Anniversary of Gemini XI, Part I
12 September 1966: Gemini XI lifted off from Florida's Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, carrying Command Pilot Pete Conrad & Pilot Dick Gordon aboard a Gemini spacecraft atop a Titan II G.L.V. rocket; they conducted a direct-ascent (first orbit) rendezvous with their Agena Target Vehicle, docked, & used its engine to set the current record altitude for an Earth-orbiting manned spacecraft.

Commentary: Gemini XI's elliptical orbit had an apogee (highest point) of eight hundred fifty-three miles; for comparison, the highest altitude for the Space Shuttle was three hundred eighty miles.

The rocket in the background of Gemini XI's liftoff was SA-500F, a dummy Saturn V that was used throughout 1966 for fit checks of launch support equipment in the Vertical Assembly Building (later renamed the Vehicle Assembly Building) & at the launch pad.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Gemini XI
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Cowboy Coffee" from More Noise and Other Disturbances (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.