Word: schirras
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...week's end, viewers saw a nearly identical telecast as Borman and Lovell-despite bouts of trouble with thrusters and fuel cells-splashed down only 7.6 miles from their planned impact point, winning a bet made with Schirra and Stafford that they would land closest to the target. There was one notable difference. After a 330-hour, 5.7 million-mile journey, the Gemini 7 astronauts were understandably anxious to leave their cramped quarters as soon as possible. Shortly after they opened their hatches, they were hoisted aboard a helicopter and flown to the deck of the Wasp. Though...
...made the first manned rendezvous in space. Moving with exquisite precision across the night sky, the spacecraft Gemini 6 tracked down its partner, Gemini 7. As the two ships edged closer to fly in formation, then circle each other in a stately orbital ballet, Stafford and Command Pilot Wally Schirra joined Gemini 7's Lieut. Colonel Frank Borman and Commander James Lovell at the farthest reach of the fast-expanding age of space...
...flotation collar was lashed into place and a plugged-in telephone provided close-up communication with the astronauts even before they opened their hatches. TV brought its fans as close as any Wasp crewman when the capsule was finally hoisted on deck, and as his hatch opened, Wally Schirra gave the familiar thumbs-up signal of success. Then, while the band played Anchors Aweigh, the two space travelers walked briskly down the red carpet of welcome between lines of cheering sailors and marines...
...Place to Go. Return to earth after their demanding ordeal in space was obviously a relief for the travel-jaded astronauts. But for them, as for Schirra and Stafford, the biggest moment had already passed. That was the historic instant when the two space capsules eased into sight of each other. For Gemini 7, it marked the end of a long loneliness; for Gemini 6, it meant the end of a long period of misfortune. Until then, its mission had seemed dogged by failure...
...October, when an Agena rendezvous rocket "backfired" and disintegrated in space, Schirra and Stafford were left sitting in Gemini 6 atop a Titan II on a Cape Kennedy launch pad. They were all dressed up with no place to go. Last week their first attempt to launch was frustrated when a monitoring-cable plug was accidentally jarred loose from the Titan II's tail, causing an automatic shutdown of its engines only two seconds before liftoff. Later investigation disclosed that the engines would have shut down anyway-on either of the first two launching attempts. Workmen had forgotten...