Word: geminis
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...Return to earth after their demanding ordeal in space was obviously a relief for the travel-jaded astronauts. But for them, as for Schirra and Stafford, the biggest moment had already passed. That was the historic instant when the two space capsules eased into sight of each other. For Gemini 7, it marked the end of a long loneliness; for Gemini 6, it meant the end of a long period of misfortune. Until then, its mission had seemed dogged by failure...
...October, when an Agena rendezvous rocket "backfired" and disintegrated in space, Schirra and Stafford were left sitting in Gemini 6 atop a Titan II on a Cape Kennedy launch pad. They were all dressed up with no place to go. Last week their first attempt to launch was frustrated when a monitoring-cable plug was accidentally jarred loose from the Titan II's tail, causing an automatic shutdown of its engines only two seconds before liftoff. Later investigation disclosed that the engines would have shut down anyway-on either of the first two launching attempts. Workmen had forgotten...
...Delicate Balance. On the day of the successful rendezvous, however, the fog that had shrouded Cape Kennedy during the night-and the cloud that had hovered over Gemini 6 even longer -suddenly blew away. "For the third time, go," exulted Schirra just before the Titan II left the pad in a launch that was as close to perfect as any in all the Cape's history...
Calculating with split-second exactitude, NASA scientists had determined the proper time of Gemini 6's launch by the position and orbit of Gemini 7. Because the earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours, while Gemini 7 was circling around it once every 96 minutes, there were only one or two brief periods a day when the launch pad for Gemini 6 was located approximately under Gemini 7's orbit and when the orbiting ship was close by-the proper launch "window" for a rendezvous attempt. For Wednesday, ideal launch time had been calculated...
...powerful Titan II rocket swiftly shoved Gemini 6 into an elliptical orbit that dipped as close to earth as 100 miles (perigee) and swung as far away as 161 miles (apogee). The average velocity was 17,535 m.p.h., only 8 m.p.h. slower than planned. Even more important, a maneuver of Gemini 6's second-stage launch rocket had placed the capsule in an orbital plane that nearly coincided with Gemini 7's; its path was almost directly below that of Gemini 7, slanting away at an angle of less than one-tenth...