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.
Other astronauts tried to do this before this time but failed
( z1 try :ARG0 ( z2 astronaut :mod ( z3 other ) ) :ARG1 ( z4 do :ARG0 z2 :ARG1 ( z5 this ) :time ( z6 before :op ( z7 time :mod ( z8 this ) ) ) ) :ARG1-of ( z9 contrast :ARG2 ( z10 fail :ARG1 z2 :ARG2 z4 ) ) )