Word: orbiteer
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During the first three orbits of Gemini 6, Command Pilot Schirra made a number of ground-computed corrective maneuvers. To change his elliptical orbit into a circle that reached up closer to Gemini 7, he made several "posigrade" burns-bursts from his forward-thrusting rockets. At two hours and 18 minutes after launch, for instance, Schirra made a posigrade burn when Gemini 6 reached its second apogee over the Indian Ocean. That thrust helped the change from ellipse to circle by increasing the perigee from 100 to 140 miles above the earth; following the laws of orbital mechanics, though...
Over the Atlantic, during the third orbit of Gemini 6, the radar transmitter in the spacecraft's nose locked onto a transponder on Gemini 7. The transponder returned signals that were translated into position data by a computer aboard Gemini 6, now only 235 miles behind. At about the same time, the two capsules established voice contact. "We are reading you loud and clear," called Borman. "Good, Frank. See you soon," replied Schirra confidently. "We will be up there shortly...
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...