Word: orbiteer
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Higher in Orbit. The Gemini 7 astronauts chalked up some other, more significant firsts. Once in orbit, they fired thrusters to turn Gemini and adjust its velocity, then flew in formation with their detached, third-stage booster for 16 minutes. By aligning the spacecraft with setting stars on the earth's horizon, they were able to navigate precisely without aid from computers on the ground. They were also able to track the first three minutes of the spectacular flight of a Polaris missile as it was fired from beneath the Atlan tic by the nuclear submarine Benjamin Franklin...
Late in the week, when accelerated preparations at Cape Kennedy all but guaranteed that Gemini 6 and Astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford would be ready to blast off by Sunday, Gemini 7 was ordered into a new orbit...
Longest & Heaviest. As they set off for a planned 14-day, 206-orbit flight-longer by six days and 86 revolutions than any previous mission-they could expect better news yet. If all goes well, by the time Borman and Lovell splash down on Dec. 18, they will have been in the air for as long as the longest estimated Apollo mission to the moon will take. They will have flown the heaviest (more than four tons) Gemini capsule yet, and undergone the most extensive in-flight medical tests. (Borman had two spots shaved on his head and depilatory rubbed...
...Saturday afternoon, driving in the country or Christmas shopping. Millions who stayed in were glued to football games on TV. They missed a fascinating launch. Rain threatened to scrub the mission until 31 hours before blastoff. A minor pressure loss in a fuel cell soon after the capsule achieved orbit was quickly remedied by switching pressure from the breathing oxygen tank to the fuel-cell oxygen tank. And in the first minutes of Gemini 7's flight, Borman and Lovell, both 37 and both making their first space journeys, succeeded in a drill that had never worked before. Guided...
...Space Administration officials the opportunity to launch 6 and 7 nine days apart in an attempt to achieve the first meeting of manned craft in space. The challenge was to compress the normal launch preparation time so that Gemini 6 could go up while Gemini 7 was still in orbit...