Orbital rendezvous made moon flight and space stations possible. It's

routine today, so much so that people forget what spaceflight might be

like without it, or what it WAS like before it, and how that pre-rendezvous

phase of space activity ended on December 15, forty years ago.

The simple narrative: http://www.wilhelm-aerospace.org/Space/Gemini/chap4.html

Here's Wally Schirra's account of the achievement: http://www.wallyschirra.com/gemini.htm

My narrative from the trajectory point of view, for the training of future Mission Control Center specialists, also included some popular folklore angles based on misunderstood events on the flight that became 'famous UFOs': http://www.jamesoberg.com/gemini7.html

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_6

Background on rendezvous concept: http://www.bookrags.com/sciences/astronomy/rendezvous-spsc-03.html

Gemini-6 also reported close fly-by of another space object: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/lifearts/ci_3316164

Oberg (foreground) in 'the trench', 1991, the critical front row of NASA's Mission Control: