This commemorative patch marks the Gemini 3 mission, the first piloted spaceflight in America's second human spaceflight program. On March 23, 1965, astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom and John W. Young in their capsule Molly Brown were boosted into orbit by a Gemini-Titan II rocket. They orbited the Earth three times and during that period successfully tested the new Gemini spacecraft.

Although the first NASA mission patches was not created until Gemini 5 later in 1965, designs for earlier missions were created retroactively to allow collectors and the public to commemorate all of NASA's human spaceflights. Although the early Gemini missions were numbered with Arabic numerals, later flights used Roman numerals. This patch was made by an unknown manufacturer for commercial sale.

Mance Clayton donated this patch to the National Collection in 1982.