NASA responds to John F. Kennedy's challenge of landing a man on the moon with a group of new astronauts for the Gemini Program, who work toward the eventual lunar voyage with a series of risky and groundbreaking earth-orbit missions.

NASA takes its boldest and most controversial step—an attempt to fly men around the moon and back for the first time in history—at the end of one of the most cataclysmic years of the century.