Word: gemini
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...past 27 years, "Mr. Mac," as he is known to his 46,000 teammates, has built and babied his McDonnell Co. from nothing into a $1 billion-a-year corporation. With his performance in the manufacture of Mercury and Gemini space capsules, he gave U.S. astronauts an essential boost into space. His jet planes were among the few ready to carry U.S. airmen into combat in Korea; for Viet Nam he has produced the F-4 Phantom, the hottest fighter yet flown in combat by any air force in the world. By his dedication to technical precision, he has turned...
NASA was so impressed that it hired McDonnell to build the Gemini capsule without even asking for competitive designs. So flawless was Gemini's performance that it completed nine of the ten manned missions precisely as planned and McDonnell collected a $25 million bonus. "McDonnell's engineers always seemed to be on top of the problem," says NASA Flight Director Chris Kraft. As often as not, Mr. Mac himself would turn up at Cape Kennedy for a 3 a.m. breakfast with departing astronaut crews. To help him recall who was who, he invariably carried a small black notebook crammed with...
Instead, NASA officials have channeled their energy and funds almost exclusively into the prevention of space mishaps, providing spacecraft with redundant systems to take over the functions of those that fail. But the near disaster encountered by the wildly gyrating Gemini 8 and the tragic deaths of the Apollo astronauts at Cape Kennedy have convinced a growing number of experts that NASA's "redundancy techniques" have their limitations and that a space-rescue system is needed to supplement them. In a 584-page space-rescue report scheduled for release this week, the House Committee on Science and Astronautics concludes...
Space Coast Guard. There is no shortage of ideas. Martin Marietta Corp. has proposed launching a piloted Gemini rescue spacecraft in tandem with an unmanned Gemini containing three seats. After the twin craft had rendezvoused with a disabled Apollo vehicle, for example, the three-man Apollo crew could transfer to the empty Gemini, detach it from the piloted rescue craft, and return to earth simply by firing their retrorockets...
...production of Pyroceram dishes that can go from the housewife's freezer to oven without cracking. The increasing complexity of astronavigation has fostered the development of swifter and smaller computers that find no end of applications on earth. The fuel cell used to supply electric power for Gemini spacecraft is being developed for commercial use, and its production of electricity from oxygen and hydrogen without burning hydrocarbons may be one answer to the smog problem that is increasing all over the world. Some scientists are already speculating about giant orbiting mirrors to light up a battlefield in Viet...