Word: dacron
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Devoid of Life. In the most spectacular movie sequence, shot with a camera fixed in the left cabin window, Gemini and Agena gyrate erratically at opposite ends of the oscillating Dacron tether while the earth swings dizzyingly below. Gradually, as Command Pilot Pete Conrad fires short blasts of his thrusters, the two ships settle down into stable rotation. The tether stretches taut between them. Frames taken after the tether is cut loose show the long Dacron strap winding in haphazard fashion around Agena...
From a box behind the Agena's docking collar, Gordon pulled out the looped end of a 2-in.-diameter, 100-ft., Dacron rope, slipped it over the end of Gemini's l-ft.-long docking bar and clamped it tight. As he crawled back toward his hatch, exhausted by that seemingly simple task, perspiration temporarily blinded his right eye. With that, Conrad ordered him back into Gemini's cabin, wiping out planned exercises with a hand-held jet maneuvering gun and a power tool for tightening bolts...
Skip Rope Outside. By managing to secure the Dacron tether between the Agena and Gemini 11 before abandoning his space walk, Gordon had set the stage for the most spectacular of Gemini's maneuvers. On the third day of the flight, Conrad undocked Gemini and used his thrusters to back slowly away from the Agena until the 100-ft. rope was taut between them. As soon as the thrusters were shut off, however, both ships began to gyrate erratically, the rope oscillating between them. "It's like the Agena and I have got a skip rope between...
During his EVA, Gordon will attach one end of a 100-ft. Dacron tether to Gemini 11, then float over to attach the tether's other end to the Agena. With hatch closed, the crew will back off until the tether is taut, then try to create artificial gravity within the spacecraft by twirling it, like a bucket at the end of a line. The 100-ft. hobble may also prove to be an efficient method of stationkeeping with the Agena...
...same economic factors that can make planes somewhat less "airworthy" than they might otherwise be, also stand to make them somewhat less "crashworthy." To dress up the cabin, the manufacturers have put in nylon and Dacron seat covers, soundproofing and rugs; the stuff may be pleasing to the passengers' eyes and pay off in ticket sales, but it can generate black, toxic fumes in a fire. To save weight, and make easy changes in the cabin configuration, seats are not moored to the floor as firmly as possible. Stewardess training is sometimes more of a brief charm school than...