page_title: James McDivitt
section_title: Project Gemini
hierarchical_section_title: James McDivitt / Biography / NASA career / Project Gemini
caption_attribution_description: English: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin shakes hand with NASA's Gemini 4 astronauts, Edward H. White II and James A. McDivitt at the Paris International Air Show in June 1965. This first meeting between Gagarin and the Gemini 4 astronauts occurred shortly after the completion of the Gemini 4 mission, where White performed the first American EVA. Yuri Gagarin achieved fame as the first human to fly in space, as well as orbit Earth. Also shown in the picture (seated) are Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and (standing) French Premier ministre Georges Pompidou. فارسی: نمایشگاه هوایی پاریس، ۱۹ ژوئن ۱۹۶۵ میلادی؛ یوری گاگارین (نشسته سمت چپ) ، هربرت هامفری معاون رئیس جمهور آمریکا ، ادوارد وایت ، ژرژ پمپیدو ، جیمز مک‌دیویت
context_page_description: James Alton "Jim" McDivitt, is an American former test pilot, United States Air Force pilot, aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut who flew in the Gemini and Apollo programs. He commanded the Gemini 4 flight during which Ed White performed the first U.S. spacewalk, and later the Apollo 9 flight which was the first crewed flight test of the Lunar Module and the complete set of Apollo flight hardware. He later became Manager of Lunar Landing Operations and was the Apollo Spacecraft Program Manager from 1969 to 1972.
context_section_description: McDivitt was selected as an astronaut by NASA in September 1962 as part of Astronaut Group 2. He was chosen as command pilot of Gemini 4, becoming the first U.S. astronaut to command a crew on his first spaceflight. Only three other Gemini astronauts, from this group, were chosen to command their first flights: Frank Borman (Gemini 7), Neil Armstrong (Gemini 8), and Elliot See (See was killed in the crash of a T-38 trainer jet three months before his Gemini 9 mission).  After Gemini, only two other rookies commanded their first flights: Gerald Carr (Skylab 4) and Joe Engle (Space Shuttle STS-2).
caption: McDivitt (right) and Ed White (3rd from right) shake hands with Yuri Gagarin (left) at the 1965 Paris Air Show
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