Gemini 4 astronauts Ed White and Jim McDivitt simulate launch procedures.
FLYING IN PAIRS
America’s second manned space project began in April 1964 with the first flight of the Gemini series. Gemini was intended to bridge the gap between the Mercury and the Apollo programs. Its goal was to fly two astronauts in space as well as to test equipment and techniques—such as rendezvous and docking—which were essential for the Moon missions.
In August 1965 the United States had finally taken the absolute endurance record in space with the Gemini 5 mission, which lasted nearly a week. There were plans to fly Gemini 7 in December for two whole weeks. In the USSR, Korolev extended the planned Voskhod 3‘s duration from ten to 15 days and then to 20 days. Then at a meeting of the Military-Industrial Commission on December 16, 1965, the Soviet government added one more condition to the Voskhod program: that Korolev launch two Voskhods in time for the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party in March 1966 as a salute to the party. It was an unrealistic deadline. Things were falling apart.
Although the Gemini missions were designed to carry astronauts, the first two flights involving Gemini spacecraft—Gemini 1 (April 8–12, 1964) and Gemini 2 (January 19, 1965)—were unmanned. They were used to test out the rockets and other systems prior to launching with a two-man crew on board.
Virgil “Gus” Grissom commanded Gemini 3, thus becoming the first man to make two spaceflights. His copilot was John Young. It was a brief mission of just three orbits lasting a total of just under 5 hours on March 23, 1965. During that time they changed orbits, achieving an orbit that had a low point of just 53 miles (85 km). After splashdown Grissom was seasick. “Gemini may be a good spacecraft but she’s a lousy ship,” he said afterward.
Looking back on the missions, for Gene Kranz, Gemini 4 was one of the most exciting of the Gemini missions. It was his first as flight director:
We wanted to be the first to have an extravehicular operation; put a man out in space, free from the spacecraft. I got tagged to work with the team in building that EVA plan. And we were very imaginative; we called it Plan X. We’d finish our work here during the day; we’d go home, we’d eat, and then all the Plan X people would come back in and we’d work generally from about 6 or 7 in the evening until 1 or 2 in the morning, building the equipment, validating it in the altitude chamber, developing mission rules, etc.
The USA’s first spacewalk was carried out by Ed White of Gemini 4. The commander of Gemini 4 was Jim McDivitt. He later commented that by the time the US started Gemini, that space race was over:
In Mercury, you couldn’t maneuver. You could change its attitude but you couldn’t change its flight path. Gemini you could. So, now you had to have the guy in the spacecraft working with the guy on the ground to know what was going on and where they were going, where they were, and what they were doing—what was going to happen. So, that worked out pretty well. As a matter of fact, I think if it hadn’t been for Gemini, flying Apollo would’ve been nigh on impossible.
My relationship with Ed couldn’t have been better. He was the best friend I ever had. We lived, like I said, a block and a half or so apart. He was getting a Master’s degree in aeronautical engineering, but he didn’t have an aeronautical engineering undergraduate degree. So, we took a lot of classes together. We started flying together. I remember when the air force had its pre-NASA astronaut selection—I walked in the room in the Pentagon and Ed was already there and he says: “I knew you’d be there!” And I said: “I knew you’d be here, too!” Unfortunately as regards our EVA, we were beaten by the Russians. By what? A couple of weeks I guess. They were quiet up until a few days before the flight. I think originally it was to score the first!
Gemini 4 was dispatched to space on June 3, 1965—the US’s first multiday mission—and once in orbit the crew turned their attention to the spacewalk.
McDivitt: When we got around to doing the EVA, Ed went to open up the hatch, but it wouldn’t open. I said: “Oh my God,” you know, “it’s not opening!” And so, we chatted about that for a minute or two. And I said: “Well, I think I can get it closed if it won’t close.” But I wasn’t too sure about it. I thought I could. But remember, then I would be pressurized. I wouldn’t be in my sports clothes, leaning over the top of the thing with a screwdriver as I had been in training. I’d be there pressurized. In the dark. So anyway, we elected to go ahead and open it up.
Ed White floats in space during America’s first spacewalk. In White’s right hand is a self-maneuvering unit, which he used to move himself around in the weightless environment.
White was outside for 21 minutes and had to be told to come back into the spacecraft by the Capcom Gus Grissom. Gemini 4 was headed for the Earth’s shadow. “This is the saddest moment of my life,” replied White.
McDivitt: That was one of the reasons I was anxious to have him get back inside the spacecraft, because I’d like to do this in the daylight, not in the dark. But by the time he got back in, it was dark. So, when we went to close the hatch, it wouldn’t close. It wouldn’t lock. And so, in the dark I was trying to fiddle around over on the side where I couldn’t see anything, trying to get my glove down in this little slot to push the gears together. And finally, we got that done and got it latched.
Two months later, on August 21, Gemini 5 was launched with Gordon Cooper and Charles “Pete” Conrad on board. With the landing back on Earth taking place on August 29, it was the longest space flight yet—the duration of the flight was equivalent to the time it would take to get to the Moon and back. This was made possible mainly by the first utilization of fuel cells; these generated extra electricity for longer flights.
Cooper: Our Gemini 5 flight. We worked long and hard at it, and we couldn’t do any EVA or do the other things because we were so loaded. We were absolutely crammed with equipment of all kinds they wanted us to have. We had the first fuel cell. We had the first radar. We had the first all up computer. These were all things that needed to be tested and proven.
At the start of Gemini 5 the oxygen pressure within the spacecraft dropped down to practically zero. According to the mission rules, the correct procedure if such an event occurred was to then switch everything off.
Cooper: I had to go into total power down. So we powered everything down, brought everything down to low, low electrical power; and, of course, it happened again when we were out of radio range. So, as we came whistling over the horizon into communication, Houston realized we were all powered down and they really panicked for a moment; and it looked like we were going to have to reenter another orbit later. But fortunately, and this is a story a lot of people don’t know: When Pete and I were going through the altitude chamber with Gemini 5, we had to go through and do these various tests; and the tests finished on a Friday; the spacecraft was due to be shipped Saturday morning to the Cape from St. Louis in order to stay on the time schedule. But one of the things we wanted to do was, we wanted to run some tests in the altitude chamber by decreasing both oxygen and hydrogen pressure, drastically, to see if the fuel cell would continue to run at altitude. NASA said: “No, we can’t afford the time. If we do it over this week, we can’t afford to delay until next week to do it. And if we do it over the weekend, it would cost us triple time of overtime, so we’re not going to do it.” So Pete and I went to Jim McDonnell, head of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and told him the story on it, and he said: “I’ll pay for it. Let’s do it.” So we spent the weekend in the altitude chamber at his cost doing the test; and if we had not done that test, we would have reentered an orbit later.
Three months later the US flew a double Gemini mission—Gemini 6 and 7. Clearly the Gemini project was gathering momentum and confidence as the US surpassed the USSR in almost every aspect of manned spaceflight that mattered. Frank Borman flew Gemini 7 with Jim Lovell on a record 14-day mission from December 4 to December 18. According to Borman:
Gemini 7 was looked upon among the astronaut group as, you know, not much of a pilot’s mission. Just sort of a medical experiment mission, which it was. Jim Lovell was a wonderful guy to spend 14 days with in a very small place. We had a lot of interesting things. You know, some of the doctors said: “Oh well, in order to do that you’re going to have to simulate it on Earth and see if you can stay in one G for 14 days.” And I, you know: “They’re out of their mind. Fourteen days sitting in a straight-up ejection seat on Earth? You’re crazy!”
We’d been up there for 11 or 12 days (I don’t remember how long). And we were tired, and the systems on the spacecraft were failing. We were running out of fuel, and it was a real high point to see this bright light (it looked like a star) come up, and then eventually we could see it was a Gemini vehicle— Gemini 6. And we found that we could—we had very limited fuel—but we found that the autopilot for the controls were perfect. You could fly formation with no problem. And then Wally slapped up the sign: “Beat Army.” Wally was always one to inject some levity into the program. And, God bless him, he really did a good job in everything he did. He just has a different—he has that little quirk of being able to include some fun with things. I never had that. I didn’t think much about the “Beat Army” sign, although it was fun at the time. About the only thing that I really felt after two weeks like that were our leg muscles were shot. And it took about three or four days; and I guess you could feel it for a week or so afterwards. But it wasn’t any big deal.
In fact Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford nearly did not get their Gemini 6 spacecraft into orbit. The plan was for Gemini 6 to launch before Borman’s flight and dock with an Agena target vehicle, but the Agena did not get into space and Gemini 6 was only itself in space from December 15 to 16. So a homing device was put on Gemini 7 for Gemini 6 to use.
TIMELINE
