Word: spacecrafts
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...nullified Apollo's triumph in space. After a last voice transmission by Command Pilot Schirra from only 200 feet above the surface, Apollo lapsed into unscheduled silence; recovery helicopters from the aircraft carrier Essex flapped blindly through rainsqualls and fog in a vain search for the spacecraft. Then, Ap suddenly, the helicopters reported that they had picked up Apollo's homing signals. The spacecraft was only a third of a mile from its selected landing spot...
Apollo's temporary silence was easily explained. As the cone-shaped spacecraft hit the ocean, it was capsized by a combination of gusty winds and choppy waves. With the capsule in a nose-down position, its submerged antennas were useless. But the astronauts, trained for such contingencies, had to inflate three flotation bags attached to Apollo's nose. As the bags became buoyant, they swung the nose toward the surface until the spacecraft flipped upright, exposing the antennas and allowing radio transmissions to be resumed...
NASA officials reported that, like its crew, the Apollo spaceship experienced only the most minor ailments during the 260-hour eight-minute flight. Some of the spacecraft windows fogged over for still-unexplained reasons; an oxygen-flow sensor misbehaved and unnecessarily flashed a red light; batteries did not recharge as fast or as fully as expected; current overloads twice tripped circuit breakers, cutting off electrical power until the crew reset the breakers. The otherwise flawless performance was a tribute to the corrective program instituted by NASA and North American Rockwell Corp., Apollo's prime contractor, after the disastrous Cape...
...everyone who has worked with him is convinced that there are really two Wally Schirras. One will be best remembered for his high jinks in space. On his first mission, he smuggled an unauthorized steak sandwich aboard the spacecraft. In mid-December 1965, during the rendezvous of Gemini 6 and 7, Schirra pulled to within a foot of the other spacecraft and held up a sign for Gemini 7's command pilot, West Point Graduate Frank Borman. It read: "Beat Army." Later, on the same flight, he reported that he had sighted "an object" going into polar orbit. "Stand...
...shot down one MIG and scored one "possible." On the first unsuccessful attempt to launch Gemini 6, when the Titan booster belched smoke and flames without lifting off, Schirra correctly decided that there was no danger of an explosion. He made a split-second decision not to damage the spacecraft by pulling the seat-ejection ring. A few days later, Gemini 6, still intact, carried him aloft to achieve man's first rendezvous in space...