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The Gemini 8 mission was very nearly a disaster if it weren’t for Armstrong’s exceptional piloting skills. Gemini 8 was scheduled to rendezvous with an unmanned Agena rocket and dock in Earth orbit. The Agena had been a problematic vehicle so the default if anything went wrong was to assume it was the Agena and to decouple. In this case, after Gemini docked successfully, both craft started gyrating in an unexpected manner. Armstrong decouples from the Agena and the movement gets worse (a maneuvering thruster was stuck open) and the Gemini starts to violently spin, which ultimately would have been fatal to Armstrong and Scott. Armstrong realizes they’re in danger and fires the reentry retros, slowing the Gemini craft and aborting the mission early but saving both himself as well as astronaut David Scott.