Word: mcdivitt
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...best. Except for a few relatively minor flaws, the space capsule functioned magnificently; even in the searing heat of reentry, the cabin stayed around 70°F., with humidity of about 60%-just like a crisp June day in Denver. As for the men, Command Pilot McDivitt and Copilot White survived more than four days of weightlessness in such good shape that space doctors were amazed. Each logged 97 hr. 56 min. in space-just 21 hr. 10 min. less than the record set by Soviet Cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky in June 1963. Together, they were aloft three times longer than...
What the computer's failure did mean was that McDivitt would not be able to "fly" the capsule back to earth. Kraft therefore advised him that ground computers would have to help steer Gemini 4 for him, as they did in Mercury flights...
Near Guaymas, Mexico, McDivitt fired four retrorockets, each with a 2,500-lb. kick, to put the slowly spinning cabin into the proper trajectory. At 400,000 ft., the spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere, and communications, as expected, went out in the intense heat of friction. In his last garbled transmission, McDivitt could be heard to say, "O.K." Outside, the heat shield glowed red-hot as the temperature rose to 3,000° F. The astronauts were enthralled. "The prettiest part of it all is re-entry," said McDivitt afterward. "We saw pink light coming up around our spacecraft...
Fifteen minutes after splashdown, Navy frogmen were lowered into the water by a helicopter. They peered into McDivitt's window to see if the astronauts were all right, then strapped a huge yellow flotation collar around the capsule to keep it from sinking...
Reception. Just 57 minutes after hitting the water, McDivitt and White were landed by helicopter on the flight deck of the Wasp. More than a thousand sailors crowded around to cheer them. There had been fears that they would faint, or at least experience dizziness the first time they tried to walk. But both saluted the U.S. flag, then strode without a misstep along the red carpet that had been laid down for them...