To fully understand an object, questions must be asked and answered. The reporter asks "who, what, when, and where." The philosopher adds "why." The engineer adds "how." These are crucial questions, to be certain, but until the "so what" question has been asked and answered, one has a partial understanding of an issue at best. This paper addresses the "so what" question for Project Gemini, the second manned space program of the United States. Elsewhere there exist technical and historical accounts of Project Gemini, but an assessment of the true importance of Project Gemini for future space programs has been sorely needed.
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