The Explorers' Club, № DCCCXLVIII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 55th Anniversary of OPS 0855
3 November 1966: OPS 0855 lifted off from Florida's Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, an unmanned "Gemini B" spacecraft atop a Titan IIIC rocket; this was the only flight of the U.S. Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory; the Gemini capsule flew a suborbital trajectory & was recovered by the U.S.S. LaSalle; the laboratory mockup entered low Earth orbit, burning up during re-entry on 9 January 1967.

Commentary: The Gemini capsule, SC-2, had previously flown the suborbital Gemini 2 mission (19 January 1965). For the M.O.L. project, it was modified by having a hatch installed in the heat shield, through which the crew would access the laboratory module.

Semper exploro.