Word: gemini
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Gemini 10 became the first spaceship ever to use the fuel and propulsion system of another craft to power its own flight; it demonstrated the feasibility of refueling in space, a technique that promises to be a vital part of interplanetary travel to Mars and beyond. Gemini was also the first spacecraft to rendezvous with two different vehicles on the same flight. It flew higher than any previous manned spacecraft and Astronaut Mike Collins, at 35, became the first man to work outside, his ship twice during the same mission. All of which places the U.S. far ahead of Russia...
Ominous Shortage. Using the knowledge of orbital mechanics that had been refined during earlier Gemini missions, Young and Collins gradually maneuvered toward a rendezvous with the Agena 10 target vehicle that had been placed in orbit with a precise launch just 100 minutes before their own blastoff. They established radar contact with the Agena 10 during their second revolution, finally sighted the target some 50 miles ahead and 17 miles above. After rising to meet the Agena and nudging Gemini's nose into the Agena's receiving collar, Young coupled the two ships...
Though the rendezvous and docking seemed almost routine, Houston controllers were shocked when Young reported that Gemini had only 380 lbs. of fuel left, about 36% of its original supply. Somehow the catch-up maneuvers during the last 25 minutes before rendezvous had consumed almost 260 lbs. more than expected...
Ominous though it was, Gemini's sudden fuel shortage provided Agena with an added opportunity to demonstrate that one spacecraft can use another's propulsion and control systems. On orders from Houston, the astronauts shut down Gemini's thrusters; for the remainder of the coupled flight, they used only Agena's power for both attitude and major orbital maneuvers, drawing on Agena's 3,348 lbs. of remaining propellant. One brief burst from Agena's big, 16,000-lb.-thrust engine added 280 m.p.h. to Gemini-Agena's velocity. "When that baby lights...
Atlantic Anomaly. Boosted by the Agena's thrust, the Gemini-Agena combination reached a maximum height of 476 miles, carrying Astronauts Young and Collins to the highest altitude ever reached by man-well above the 354-mile record set by Russian Cosmonauts Aleksei Leonov and Pavel Belyayev during the 1965 flight of Voskhod II. In its lofty elliptical orbit, Gemini-Agena passed several times through the "South Atlantic Anomaly," an area where the lower portion of the Van Allen radiation belt dips to within a few hundred miles of the earth. Though the astronauts were exposed to radiation...