The first rendezvous in space, at 17,000 mph: a golden disk in the sky, 15-16 December 1965

Large format vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based paper (NASA image S-65-63222), printed 1965-1967, with McDonnell Douglas credit stamp, ID number "D4C 325609" and "A KODAK PAPER" watermark on verso, 21,8 x 27,8 cm

About six hours after liftoff, while passing over the Hawaii tracking station on Gemini VI-A’s fourth orbit, Schirra reported that he and Stafford had caught up with Borman and Lovell on board Gemini VII.
Thomas Stafford shot the photograph with a Hasselblad 500C camera and its 80mm lens using Kodak SO 217 film with an ASA of 1964.

The golden adapter end of Gemini VII spacecraft gleams in the Sun, about 42 feet away, during station keeping over the Earth, about 160 miles below.

“The ability to take this photo was very gratifying after the numerous delays we encountered in performing the world’s first rendezvous mission. The Gemini VI-A spacecraft was launched on the third attempt to perform the rendezvous and performed it flawlessly. After the hard work and effort of over a year, we finally achieved the key step that will lead us to the lunar-landing mission.”
Thomas Stafford (Cortright, p. 165)

“They were talking in terms of feet, but we were closer, six to eight inches. That’s how deftly the spacecraft could be controlled.”
Walter Schirra (Schick and Van Haaften, p. 50)

Literature:
LIFE, 7 January 1969, p. 29; The View from Space: American Astronaut Photography 1962-1972, Schick and Van Haaften, pp. 50-51.