Word: spacecrafts
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...became the first spaceship ever to use the fuel and propulsion system of another craft to power its own flight; it demonstrated the feasibility of refueling in space, a technique that promises to be a vital part of interplanetary travel to Mars and beyond. Gemini was also the first spacecraft to rendezvous with two different vehicles on the same flight. It flew higher than any previous manned spacecraft and Astronaut Mike Collins, at 35, became the first man to work outside, his ship twice during the same mission. All of which places the U.S. far ahead of Russia in almost...
Before it blasted off from Cape Kennedy last week, the two-man spacecraft Gemini 10 faced a flight plan that was easily the most complex and ambitious ever designed for U.S. astronauts. By the time they splashed into the Atlantic after three days in orbit, Gemini's crew had collected an impressive variety of space-age records. With one after an other intricate exercise, Command Pilot John Young and his colleague, Michael Collins, wrote bright new chapters into the record book of space travel...
Ominous though it was, Gemini's sudden fuel shortage provided Agena with an added opportunity to demonstrate that one spacecraft can use another's propulsion and control systems. On orders from Houston, the astronauts shut down Gemini's thrusters; for the remainder of the coupled flight, they used only Agena's power for both attitude and major orbital maneuvers, drawing on Agena's 3,348 lbs. of remaining propellant. One brief burst from Agena's big, 16,000-lb.-thrust engine added 280 m.p.h. to Gemini-Agena's velocity. "When that baby lights...
Once everything on board was squared away, with the same precision that marked its launch, the spacecraft splashed down in the Atlantic, less than three miles off target and within sight of the recovery ship Guadalcanal. Lifted to the ship's deck by a rescue helicopter, Young and Collins were greeted by cheering sailors and a band playing It's a Small, Small World. For U.S. astronauts, it is a universe that is rapidly expanding...
They also suggest that atmospheric pressure in the dusty lowlands is higher than previously believed -- high enough for a spacecraft to make a soft landing with a parachute instead of the more complex retro-rockets...