Word: geminis
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...these possibilities, NASA decided in the late 1950s that a space-mission failure was more likely to occur because of the added complexity and weight of a two-gas system than because of the fire hazard of a pure-oxygen system. Designers spared no efforts to fireproof the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft. All electrical wiring was coated with noncombustible materials. Devices capable of sending out sparks were placed in sealed boxes. Space suits, seats, instruments and cabin walls were all designed to avoid the generation of static electricity...
...Apollo, built by North American Aviation, is by far the biggest, most sophisticated space vehicle ever made. It is to the Gemini what a Boeing 747 is to a DC-6-roomy enough for a man to stand erect and move about, equipped with space luxuries such as hammocks for stretched-out sleeping, hot and cold water, even a toilet...
Grissom got that chance when he was picked as the pilot of America's first two-man spacecraft. With the launching of Gemini 3 on its three-orbit flight on March 23, 1965, Grissom became the first man ever to journey twice into space. Aided by Co-Pilot John Young, he scored yet another space first when he took over the controls himself, skill- fully piloted the craft through a series of tricky orbit-changing maneuvers. After that success, Grissom seemed to loosen up. The Apollo flight would have made him the only man to enter space three times...
...folksiness that Grissom lacked. In fact, when his celebrated space walk on June 3, 1965 put him in the first rank of astronaut heroes, it was as much for his offhanded casualness as for the feat itself. With the world following his every move, White stepped out of orbiting Gemini 4 at the end of a 24-ft. tether, strolled in space for a spell, then matter-of-factly informed Pilot James Alton McDivitt: "It's fun. I'm not coming in." At one point, McDivitt protested: "Hey, you smeared my window you dirty dog." Replied the floating...
...rope in his backyard on weekends, usually bicycled the three miles between his Houston home and the NASA Space Center. To his fellow astronauts, it came as no surprise when White took along a gold cross, a St. Christopher medal and a Star of David on his 62-orbit Gemini 4 flight, explaining afterward that they were "the most important thing that I had going...