Word: orbit
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Blue Lights. After Gemini 6 was jockeyed into a nearly circular orbit 170 miles above the earth and only 17 miles below Gemini 7's flight path, Copilot Stafford caught his first glimpse of 7's blue acquisition lights pulsing in the blackness above the South Atlantic. "Spotted Gemini 7 at 12 o'clock high," he reported...
...been flying most of their mission in underwear, were now in their space suits. If the two spacecraft inadvertently bumped, their skins might rupture and the astronauts would need protection against decompression of the cabin. Meanwhile, Schirra made another posigrade burn to lift his ship into a higher orbit that would lead to its meeting with Gemini...
Eventually, Gemini 6 maneuvered into a safer orbit that kept the ships between 25 and 48 miles apart while their tired crews slept. Next morning, an hour before he fired retrorockets for Gemini 6's trip back to earth, the irrepressible Schirra solemnly reported sighting an unidentified satellite in a low trajectory in polar orbit. It was trying to contact him, he told Mission Control in Houston. Then, before Chris Kraft & Co. had time to recover, he pulled out a harmonica and played Jingle Bells...
Eyeball Maneuvers. From the time that Schirra made the final major thrust that moved his ship up toward Gemini 7's circular orbit, Gemini 6 was completely on its own, freed from direct guidance by Houston, largely dependent on its on-board computer, its radar and Command Pilot Schirra's "eyeball" maneuvering. Both Schirra and Stafford literally had their hands full. Schirra's left hand was on the OAMS (Orbital Attitude Maneuvering System) translation stick, which controls Gemini's 85-Ib. and 100-lb. thrusters, and is-in NASA parlance-"direction oriented." When he wanted...
Later Geminis will fly two-day missions, primarily to practice rendezvous and docking; while on earth orbit, they will simulate the maneuver that will eventually bring Apollo's Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) back to the moon-orbiting command capsule for its return trip to earth. Next year will also see the first flights of unmanned Apollo vehicles, perhaps even a manned orbit of the three-man vehicle...