Word: geminis
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...everyone who has worked with him is convinced that there are really two Wally Schirras. One will be best remembered for his high jinks in space. On his first mission, he smuggled an unauthorized steak sandwich aboard the spacecraft. In mid-December 1965, during the rendezvous of Gemini 6 and 7, Schirra pulled to within a foot of the other spacecraft and held up a sign for Gemini 7's command pilot, West Point Graduate Frank Borman. It read: "Beat Army." Later, on the same flight, he reported that he had sighted "an object" going into polar orbit. "Stand...
...only slightly less than the 1.6 million-lb. thrust of the Saturn 1B's first stage. As a result, acceleration was gradual; Astronauts Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham were subjected to only a fraction of the oppressive G-forces experienced on earlier flights by Mercury and Gemini crews...
Schirra meanwhile, was setting new records. The 45-year-old Navy captain, a veteran of near-perfect Mercury and Gemini missions and the first pilot to make a space rendezvous, became the first man to a drink coffee and the first to develop a full-blown cold in space. "I've gone through eight or nine Kleenexes with some pretty good blows, he radioed, "and I've taken two aspirins." NASA doctors prescribed decongestant pills that they routinely store aboard Apollo spacecraft...
...Exit. The tragedy jolted NASA out of the complacency that had built up during the highly successful Mercury and Gemini programs, in which a total of 16 manned craft were sent into space, maneuvered and recovered without serious mishap. In a frenzy of self-doubt, NASA virtually tore up the Apollo program, shifted personnel, and clamped down hard on the procedures and workmanship of North American's Space Division, prime contractors for the Apollo spacecraft...
...there, Neil," barked Flight Control. Armstrong needed no prompting. He had already yanked the ejection ring and he parachuted to safety as the $2,100,000 craft dived straight into the ground. It was Armstrong's second close call. Two years ago he coolly jockeyed a malfunctioning Gemini 8 spacecraft to an emergency splashdown in the Pacific...