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NASA reported on November 13, 2026, that photographs taken during the 1966 Gemini XII mission helped spur development of an early Earth observation program. Astronauts James A. Lovell Jr. and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. orbited Earth from November 11 to 15, 1966, on Gemini XII, the final mission of NASA's Gemini program. Beyond the photographs, the crew completed rendezvous maneuvers and spacewalks, procedures that were vital to sending American astronauts to the Moon. NASA's account describes how the mission's imagery contributed to the later Earth-observing work, though the excerpt does not detail the program's specific outcomes.