Word: geminis
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Partisans of both sides of the argument have been stirred up once more by a National Aeronautics and Space Administration report on the two-man Gemini capsule, which will soon supersede the one-man Mercury. The Gemini, says the report, will return to many airplane practices; its crew will fly it as freely as possible. But though the Gemini will be 'flown" after a fashion, to control it effectively will call for highly scientific skills...
...Options. Gemini astronauts will have many more opportunities to exercise their personal judgment, but only in ways that meet the rigid requirements of space. If a launching seems to be going wrong Gemini astronauts will have the option of ejecting themselves like airplane pilots hitting the silk. In the Mercury program this emergency function is under the contn of automatic instruments...
...When a Gemini capsule is about to re-enter the atmosphere, it will be positioned for retrofire by computers on the ground. The pilot will rearm the retrorockets, which will be fired automatically when the proper time comes. During the capsule's long fiery curve through the atmosphere its astronauts will have a slight degree of control. By firing attitude rockets and tilting the capsule, they will be able to give it aerodynamic lift and so control to some extent the point where it approaches the ground. When it reaches about 48,000 ft the pilot will release...
Rendezvous. Gemini's primary purpose is to practice rendezvous in earth orbit, a job of navigation and maneuver that will be controlled largely by ground-based computers. Only after the Gemini capsule and its target satellite have come within sight or radar range of each other will the pilot take charge. Even then a small computer will tell him how to make the two courses intersect. During the final approach, he will really "fly" the capsule. When sufficient experience has been accumulated, he will mate capsule with target, perhaps orbiting with it and taking advantage of its fuel stores...
...astronauts will begin their training on Oct. 1. The first phase will be catching up with the Mercury program, but they will not be trained as pilots of the Mercury capsule. As potential Gemini and Apollo pilots, who may rendezvous around the moon or even land on it, they must learn esoteric subjects-including computer theory and celestial mechanics -that have to do with active space navigation. Their capsules will maneuver more or less freely, changing their orbits and trying to join other orbiting objects. The new astronauts will carry along their own propulsion systems and navigation instruments, and will...