Word: orbiter
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Dogged by minor mishaps, determined to go the full route, the men of Gemini 5 aimed for eight days in orbit -and made it. Early this week Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad maneuvered their spacecraft back into the earth's atmosphere over California. Minutes later, at precisely 8:55:58 a.m. (EDT) on Sunday, they splashed down in the Atlantic about 90 miles short of target, soon were picked up by helicopter and lifted to the carrier Lake Champlain. Safe and smiling, they seemed in perfect shape...
...unit that caused the problem never did kick on. As the flight soared into the second day, the oxygen pressure slowly moved upward-and optimism soared at Houston command. "The morning headline," broadcast Kraft to the astronauts, "says your flight may splash down in the Pacific on the sixth orbit." Replied Conrad: "I'm sorry to disappoint them...
Behind them was by far the longest space flight made by anyone. They accomplished their prime mission-proving that man can live and work in space for the amount of time that it would take to journey to the moon and back. During 190½ hours in orbit, they made 120 revolutions around the earth, seeing 120 sunrises and sunsets, and traveled 3,300,000 miles. More important than those records, which would surely be broken by the Gemini 7 flight early next year, were the significant achievements of the voyage. Said Flight Director Chris Kraft: "We have learned...
...days before doctors could tell whether "Gordo" Cooper and "Pete" Conrad suffered any really bad effects from the prolonged weightlessness and confinement in their spaceship, they appeared to have nothing worse than stiff joints, heavy beards and nagging itches. Cooper apparently came through better than on his first, 22-orbit flight two years ago; his heartbeat averaged 89 then, about 70 this time...
...necessary components failed beyond repair, the astronauts managed to accomplish many of their assignments. Although a faulty fuel-cell system prevented them from making their planned rendezvous with another object in space, the astronauts maneuvered their craft with such precision that they could have sought out and entered the orbit of another vehicle...