Word: geminis
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Have you got us in sight?" asked Astronaut Tom Stafford as Gemini 9 dropped toward the choppy Atlantic Ocean under its 84-ft. orange-and-white-striped parachute...
...first time in the U.S. manned-space program, a returning spacecraft was landing close enough to the recovery carrier to permit television coverage of its splashdown. Cameras on the deck of the Wasp picked up Gemini as soon as it loomed below the clouds, photographed its recovery by the carrier, and sent the telecast live via Early Bird satellite into millions of American and European homes. For Stafford and Co-pilot Eugene Cernan, who came "right down the pickle barrel"-within four miles of the Wasp-it was a rewarding finish to a flight that had been marred by failure...
Umbilical Dynamics. Plagued by abortive launchings, prevented from docking with the Augmented Target Docking Adapter (ATDA) because its protective shroud had not shaken loose, the two astronauts were exhausted by three difficult but largely successful rendezvous attempts (TIME, June 10). Even so, the Gemini 9 crew hoped to salvage most of the mission by successfully completing their last and most dramatic assignment: Astronaut Cernan's scheduled 21-hour walk in space. "Hallelujah!" shouted Cernan as he opened his hatch and emerged into space on schedule...
Clad in his cumbersome space suit and connected to Gemini by a white, 25-ft. oxygen and communications cord, Cernan methodically began his work. He attached a rearview mirror to the docking bar near Gemini's nose so that Stafford could watch and photograph him through a forward-facing window while he maneuvered near the aft end of the craft. Just behind the hatch, he clamped a 16-mm. movie camera into place...
Fogged-Up Experiment. After 55 minutes, and just as Gemini passed over the dark side of the earth, Cernan moved into position to prepare for his Buck Rogers-like flight in the jet-powered Astronaut Maneuvering Unit (AMU), stowed in the equipment section on Gemini's tail end. Struggling mightily, he pulled off the AMU's thermal cover, which had not been automatically jettisoned as planned after Gemini passed through the atmosphere on its way into orbit. Working with a check list calling for 32 separate operations, he began testing the AMU's propulsion and oxygen systems...