Word: geminis
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...Gemini two-men-in-space program, already nine months behind schedule, got off the ground last week. A Martin Marietta Titan II rode from Cape Kennedy trailing orange smoke from its two engines, an unmanned dummy capsule fitted into its nose. The first stage burned for 21 minutes, then the second stage ignited and accelerated to orbital speed. In six minutes the word came back from the tracking system: Gemini was in orbit with a perigee of 99.6 miles and an apogee of 204 miles, almost exactly as planned...
...tetroxide as oxidizer) that are "hyper-golic," ignited spontaneously on contact. It is much more powerful than the Atlas that launched the manned Mercury capsules, having 430,000 Ibs. of thrust at takeoff instead of 360,000, and 100,000 Ibs. of thrust in its second stage. The dummy Gemini capsule, weighted with ballast and instruments, was more than twice as heavy (6,950 Ibs.) as a manned Mercury capsule, though lighter than the 8,200-lb. warhead that the Titan II normally carries on a ballistic flight...
Last week's Gemini was expected to burn up in the atmosphere in a few days. It was sacrificed chiefly to find out whether Titan II had been successfully modified for the man-in-space program. It used a different guidance system and many safety devices to protect the lives of the astronauts whom it will carry later in the program. The Titan's engines were modified to reduce its characteristic "pogo-stick" (up-and-down) vibration, which might incapacitate a human crew. Reports came back that everything worked fine...
...settled on for sure. It will be a pressurized cylinder, about 25 ft. long and 10 ft. in diameter -approximately the size of a small house trailer. It will be attached to the blunt heat shield of one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's two-man Gemini capsules, and it will be heaved aloft by a hefty Titan III rocket, which, with its two solid-fuel boosters, develops as much as 2,000,000 Ibs. of thrust...
Once in orbit, the astronauts riding the Gemini's cramped capsule will open a hatch in the heat shield and crawl into the lab, where efficient life-support equipment will let them safely shuck their cumbersome space suits. They will have plenty of room to move around, and by making due allowance for zero gravity, they will be able to perform elaborate and delicate tasks. After several weeks in the lab, they will return to the capsule and close the hatch in the heat shield. After detaching the MOL and leaving it in orbit, they will ignite their retrorockets...