Word: spacecrafts
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Shot by a camera through the spacecraft's window, the movie films first showed the Agena target vehicle sailing serenely through space (see opposite page) as the Gemini maneuvered carefully around it in a masterly exhibition of spacecraft control. Pictures of the docking process (see succeeding pages) reflected Gemini's cautious approach and clearly showed the green lights on the Agena's instrument panel signaling that all was well. Despite their silence, the pictures seemed to give the sound of a solid, satisfactory thump as the two vehicles mated firmly in space...
...regain stability, Armstrong took another emergency step. He began firing Gemini's re-entry attitude-control rockets, which are designed to be used only to position the capsule properly as it re-enters the atmosphere on its way back to earth. "We are regaining control of the spacecraft slowly," he reported. By the time Gemini was out over the Pacific, it was getting back on even keel, sailing serenely through space only a few miles away from the Agena, which had been re-stabilized by radioed commands from ground controllers. "O.K., relax," the Coastal Sentry controller advised the astronauts...
...Astronaut Scott's two-hour walk in space, the first vise of a power tool in space and a host of other scientific experiments. In Houston the next move was obvious: Arm strong's decision to use his vital re-entry rockets prematurely meant that the spacecraft must be returned to earth before it ran out of the necessary fuel for controlling reentry...
...Agena's nose, close enough for them to read a small, lighted instrument panel over the target craft's docking cone. Using his maneuvering stick, Armstrong fired a brief burst from two of Gemini's 100-lb. thrusters. The gap between Agena and the spacecraft closed at about six inches per second, until the craft gently bumped its nose into the docking cone...
Then Gemini returned to docile perfection. Advised by Houston that they were to bring the spacecraft back to earth in an area 500 miles southeast of Okina wa, Armstrong and Scott fired their four 2,500-lb. retrorockets over Central Africa at 9:45 p.m. E.S.T. and skillfully guided Gemini 8 toward its splashdown...