Word: geminis
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Gemini two-men-in-space program, already nine months behind schedule, got off the ground last week. A Martin Marietta Titan II rode from Cape Kennedy trailing orange smoke from its two engines, an unmanned dummy capsule fitted into its nose. The first stage burned for 21 minutes, then the second stage ignited and accelerated to orbital speed. In six minutes the word came back from the tracking system: Gemini was in orbit with a perigee of 99.6 miles and an apogee of 204 miles, almost exactly as planned...
...settled on for sure. It will be a pressurized cylinder, about 25 ft. long and 10 ft. in diameter -approximately the size of a small house trailer. It will be attached to the blunt heat shield of one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's two-man Gemini capsules, and it will be heaved aloft by a hefty Titan III rocket, which, with its two solid-fuel boosters, develops as much as 2,000,000 Ibs. of thrust...
Once in orbit, the astronauts riding the Gemini's cramped capsule will open a hatch in the heat shield and crawl into the lab, where efficient life-support equipment will let them safely shuck their cumbersome space suits. They will have plenty of room to move around, and by making due allowance for zero gravity, they will be able to perform elaborate and delicate tasks. After several weeks in the lab, they will return to the capsule and close the hatch in the heat shield. After detaching the MOL and leaving it in orbit, they will ignite their retrorockets...
...research on space development; most is used for the mere construction of ground facilities like launching pads. Although the Pentagon is interested in several aspects of the moon program, it has left management of the project completely in NASA's hands. It has watched the development of the Gemini project closely, however, because it sees some future military uses of rendezvous-in-space techniques. The Pentagon has also followed the progress of large boosters like the Titan II and the Saturn V-although it is not really sure what their military potential will...
Unpleasant Habit. Aside from such unknowns that no one can now evaluate, the moon rocket's propulsion system threatens the most delay. Titan II, a two-stage military rocket, is giving trouble as a launcher for the Gemini capsule. It vibrates too violently for a manned booster, and if this unpleasant habit is not eliminated soon, the Gemini program will fall even farther behind. Since Gemini is the training tool for the vital rendezvous maneuvers, delay will slow the entire program...