In 1962, Armstrong was transferred to astronaut status. He served as command pilot for the Gemini 8 mission, launched March 16, 1966, and along with David Scott, performed the first successful docking of two vehicles in space by mating his Gemini 8 with an uninhabited Agena rocket.
They had tried to do this before but they failed what that time
( z1 contrast :ARG1 ( z2 try :ARG0 ( z3 they ) :ARG1 ( z4 do :ARG0 z3 :ARG1 ( z5 this ) :time ( z6 before ) ) ) :ARG2 ( z7 fail :ARG1 z3 :ARG2 z4 :time ( z8 time :mod ( z9 that ) ) ) )