Word: astronaut
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Umbilical Dynamics. Plagued by abortive launchings, prevented from docking with the Augmented Target Docking Adapter (ATDA) because its protective shroud had not shaken loose, the two astronauts were exhausted by three difficult but largely successful rendezvous attempts (TIME, June 10). Even so, the Gemini 9 crew hoped to salvage most of the mission by successfully completing their last and most dramatic assignment: Astronaut Cernan's scheduled 21-hour walk in space. "Hallelujah!" shouted Cernan as he opened his hatch and emerged into space on schedule...
Swiveling his shoulders and hips, Cernan inched cautiously around the craft and tried to familiarize himself with the strange dynamics of the umbilical cord in the vacuum of space. At one point, the cord wrapped itself around him. "The snake's all over me!" shouted the surprised astronaut. For still unexplained reasons, Cernan-like Ed White before him-had to struggle constantly against a tendency to soar above the spacecraft at the end of his cord...
Fogged-Up Experiment. After 55 minutes, and just as Gemini passed over the dark side of the earth, Cernan moved into position to prepare for his Buck Rogers-like flight in the jet-powered Astronaut Maneuvering Unit (AMU), stowed in the equipment section on Gemini's tail end. Struggling mightily, he pulled off the AMU's thermal cover, which had not been automatically jettisoned as planned after Gemini passed through the atmosphere on its way into orbit. Working with a check list calling for 32 separate operations, he began testing the AMU's propulsion and oxygen systems...
...experiences suggested to most NASA officials that they had been too optimistic in estimating the amount of work man can do in space. The knowledge that space flight's zero gravity actually makes a task harder, rather than easier, will probably force them to scale down astronaut spacewalk assignments on future missions. Says NASA's Dr. Charles Berry: "Men will be able to work, but I don't think we'll be working an eight-hour day outside in space...
Incandescent Re-Entry. Like almost everything else on Gemini 9's glitch-filled flight, space photography fell short of expectations. Just as he was about to close the hatch, Astronaut Cernan lost the film magazine and a lens from the movie camera that had recorded his space walk. As lens and film floated out of the spacecraft and into orbits of their own, he grabbed for them but missed. Understandably, Cernan did not follow. "I didn't feel like any more extravehicular activity," he explained. In addition, many of the 17 magazines of color film shot from inside...