Gemini VIII lifts off in March 1966 with command pilot Neil Armstrong and pilot David Scott aboard, tasked with the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit. This NASA-produced film shows the Agena target vehicle waiting in orbit and the careful approach and linkup that follows, a procedure practiced for months in simulators before anyone tried it in space. Minutes after docking, the joined spacecraft begin an uncontrolled roll, and the footage and mission audio convey how quickly a routine achievement turned into the first critical in-space equipment failure of an American spaceflight. Armstrong separates Gemini from the Agena and fights the tumbling capsule using reentry control thrusters, a fix improvised from training rather than the flight plan. Mission rules force an immediate abort, and the film follows the crew through splashdown and recovery instead of the planned three-day flight. The film credits the extensive simulation regimen, including drills for failures exactly like this one, for keeping Armstrong and Scott alive, three years before Armstrong's Apollo 11 landing.