On March 16, 1966 Gemini 8 Comander along with Dave Scott Pilot Dave Scott performed the world's first orbital docking with the unmanned Agena Target Vehicle which was launched an hour before Gemini 8.
Shortly after Docking the two space craft began to spin violently out of control. Thinking there was a problem with the Agena Neil Armstrong Undocked the two spacecraft only to make the spin worse. The two Astronauts were spinning so fast that they were beginning to get dizzy & disorientated & worried how long it would be before they lost consciousness than co-pilot Dave Scott noticed that Gemini 8's Attitude fuel had dropped to 30% indicating that it was a problem on their own spacecraft. After steadying the spacecraft they tested each OAMS thruster in turn and found that Number 8 had been stuck on. They Immediatly aborted the mission & had back to earth.
Neil Armstrong's cool-headedness and his ability to recover from an extremely dangerous space emergency was a pivotal factor in his selection as Apollo 11 commander. Likewise, Dave Scott's performance contributed to his flight on Apollo 9 and (as commander) on Apollo 15.
