Word: gemini
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...third day up, the astronauts did the next best thing: they played a game of electronic tag. In an imaginary chase across the heavens, Cooper, in four precise maneuvers, closed the gap between the orbit of Gemini 5 and the simulated orbit of a phantom Agena rocket plotted by a computer...
First (see diagram below) he fired a short burst of backward burn from the thrusters, lowering Gemini's apogee by 13 miles. Almost 40 minutes later, he triggered a forward burn to raise the perigee ten miles. Next he yawed the spacecraft and fired the aft thrusters to move it onto the same orbital plane as the phantom. After one last forward thrust to raise the apogee, Cooper had his craft in a co-elliptical orbit with the phantom Agena-close enough so that the pilot, using on-board radar and computer, could eventually bring his craft to within...
Over the ocean Over the blue Here's Gemini 5 singing...
...47th revolution, he scored a space first-the visual sighting of a missile launching. "I see it, I see it," cried Conrad, as the 60-ft. Minuteman burst through the clouds over Vandenberg A.F.B. The Air Force had timed the lift-off to test whether Gemini 5 could locate and photograph such an operation. Several revolutions later, the astronauts spotted a second Minuteman launch from Vandenberg...
...eight tiny 25-lb. thrusters jammed. Forced to rely more heavily on the other thrusters, Cooper used up considerable fuel, leaving only 17 Ibs. for the rest of the trip. Ground control suggested that Cooper might indulge in "a couple of rolls and a loop" to celebrate when Gemini 5 cracked the time-in-space record held by Russia's Vostok 5. Cooper said he could not spare the fuel-and besides, "That's all we have been doing all day is rolling and rolling...