Word: geminis
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...anxious quiet set in as Gemini 5 swept over the Atlantic on the beginning of its third revolution. Along with most of the U.S., the astronauts' families huddled close to their TV sets, waiting for some word. Almost everyone was convinced that the spacecraft would have to be brought down during the sixth revolution, before its orbital track took it away from the Pacific recovery area that would be its last convenient rescue location for many hours...
...have had a significant pressure rise, please turn your transmitter up and acknowledge." There was no acknowledgement. The pressure had leveled out at 71 Ibs. The sixth revolution was coming up fast, and a decision had to be made soon. If recovery were delayed even one revolution longer, Gemini would not be over a convenient landing area for another 18 hours...
...Gemini 5 sailed off over the South Atlantic on its fifth revolution, Kraft faced his responsibility. Go? Or no go? Should he bring his ship down or reach for 18 revolutions? If he aborted the flight now, the astronauts would land in the Pacific recovery area where there were no helicopters within reach. At 18 revolutions, the spacecraft could splash down southwest of Bermuda, in the primary recovery area. The flight director called in his engineers, conferred with top NASA brass. Pride and prestige were involved; no manned U.S. spacecraft had ever failed to complete its planned mission. But Kraft...
...Longer the Better. With each revolution after the crucial sixth, the hopes at Mission Control soared. The flight of Gemini 5, they speculated, might go eight days after all. Relaxed and grinning, wearing a silver Gemini pin in his lapel, Chris Kraft held his first press conference of the mission. "We have reasonably good confidence," said he, "that we're going to be able to go on and complete the intended duration of this flight. He had just made one of the toughest decisions of his career, he was confident he had made the right one, and with each...
...travel, says Flight Director Chris Kraft, is: "If you don't know what to do, don't do anything." Then, if the problem does not correct itself, there is almost always time enough to take remedial action−as there was last week when the gremlins of Gemini 5 battled against the determined ingenuity, intelligence and hardheaded courage of crack U.S. spacemen...