Word: spacecrafts
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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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...
Astronauts Borman and Lovell, who had 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...
...sideward motion. In his right hand, he clasped a notched pistol grip that controlled smaller thrusters used to pitch, yaw or roll the Gemini around one of its own axes-maneuvers that could fix its attitude in space. By working both controls simultaneously, Schirra was able to make his spacecraft respond as smoothly as a trained seal. Stafford, meanwhile, was busy with a circular slide rule and a heavily crosshatched plotting chart in his lap, checking the on-board computer's data and relaying information to Mission Control...
Schirra's quiet but effective copilot, Tom Stafford, 35, is a topflight aeronautical engineer. His rapid slide-rule calculations supplemented the information supplied by the ship's on-board computer and helped keep the crew and the men in Houston on top of the spacecraft's rapidly changing position. Also an Annapolis man, Stafford decided to make his career in the Air Force, has written two handbooks on flight-testing programs...
...Lovell were the only humans in space during most of the 14-day flight, their mission, which was primarily medical, was also very public. Nearly all of their important body functions-from thinking to urinating-were monitored through sensors attached to their bodies, recorded on instruments in the spacecraft, or relayed to Houston where batteries of doctors pored over telemetered data. Each man was required to bag and date his own solid and liquid wastes, to be turned over to doctors at flight's end. For want of a more descriptive term, Borman and Lovell described their extended mission...