In the second installment of Defense & Aerospace Report’s exclusive, multi-part interview with Lt. Gen. Tom Stafford, USAF Ret., former NASA astronaut and former US Air Force acquisition chief, Stafford discusses why he joined NASA and the significance of the Gemini VI mission, during which the US made the world’s first space rendezvous. The interview was taped at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air & Space Museum in Washington on July 20, 2017, the 48th anniversary of the first lunar landing. Stafford flew two Gemini and two Apollo missions, commanding Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal for Apollo 11 that landed man on the moon.
