Kopernik Explores the Gemini Space Missions th century was the space program that lead to the first man on the moon. The Friday January 29 th at 7pm on their YouTube channel, Kopernik Observatory and Science Center will present a very special presentation of the Gemini missions, one of the building blocks that led to the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Enter your number to get our free mobile app The Forgotten Space Program: Gemini was between the earlier Mercury missions, that put the first man in space, and first man to orbit the Earth, and the Apollo Missions that actually put Neil Armstrong and eleven others on the surface of the moon.