GEMINI 8 THIS IS HOUSTON FLIGHT

rer how's it looking guidance looking good fly Roger go pH slightly low no problem Roger pH how about you for staging tanks tanks are go for staging Roger Capcom we're go for staging Roger staging how thrust look booster that thrust is looking a little high flight Roger okay standby for final status check booster go retro go Pho go guidance guidance you go stand by one surgeon go econ go GNC B how do you stand guidance I go flight Roger Capcom where go early shut down we have a SEO here flight shut down flight F we had cut off standby Roger pH standing by for eyes over 300 second 72952 noer we're no go Capcom we're no go Roger you are no go no go retro you got a time here all Roger flight area Charlie at 9 plus two B Ang on the Retro 7° recovery flight here we're going for area Charlie we'll be retr firing at 9 plus 20 Roger flight can you give me some wether and access times in that area please no swells and uh your call sign rescue one the Destroyer is the low five 4 3 2 1 retr fire fire one rocket two this was not an actual gmany Mission nobody left the ground gmany did not abort we have simply edited together an isolated launch with shots of the flight controllers simulating that launch the flight was simulated from an adjacent room in the mission control center Houston and like many other things in the Space Age flight simulation is done by computers the primary and backup crew for gmany 8 will undergo 11 days of such simulated flights before launch day March 16th early in the program experts sit down and analyze the giny 8 flight they know it is a three-day Mission its primary purposes include rendevu in space with an aena Target vehicle the first docking in space and a 2-hour Space Walk by Pilot David Scott the experts then devis problems that could occur some simple some quite challenging they feed these problems into a computer and sit back and see what happens perhaps with a little Glee at any rate the crew in the simulator and the controller at the console are given the problem both must respond correctly about 90 problems will be run for the gmany 8 mission on the schedule are two days devoted to the aena Target vehicle 4 days devoted to network simulations and 2 days scheduled for running re-entry simulations including emergency re-entries 11 days of problem solving most probably none of them would turn up during the flight but if one should the crew and the 5,000 people in the ground Network that support these two men would be ready several days before gmany 8 will leave the ground the USS boxer steams toward the primary recovery zone where the mission will normally end it begins training its complement of officers and men in recovery operations instead of launching amphibious strike missions the boxer now launches helicopters for search and retrieval of astronauts on board is the commander of the western Atlantic recovery forces known as task force 14.3 two ships six helicopters and six aircraft are assigned to this task force all five man geminy flights to date have been recovered as planned in the primary Zone still 10 more ships 54 aircraft and 5,000 additional men will be deployed at different stations around the world for Recovery there are nine other planned Landing areas lying within the three major zones of the Eastern Atlantic the mid-pacific and the Western Pacific in the Western Pacific the USS Leonard F Mason a destroyer begins exercises on the retrieval of a boilerplate model of the gmany spacecraft the Mason will cover three Landing areas within Zone 3 it will be backed up by aircraft from okanawa and Japan the chief difference between the primary area where the boxer is stationed and a secondary area such as this is the comprehensiveness of coverage the number of aircraft ships and Recovery Specialists on station in addition a special launch abort area covers the land mass and immediate offshore areas at Cape Kennedy recovery teams go out before the astronauts enter the spacecraft in case of an ejected abort from the Launchpad or shortly after liftoff there could be more extreme contingencies the emergency might be such that a spacecraft could not land in a planned landing area in a dire emergency the command pilot might have to fire the Retro rockets and come right down bare statistics come into play here the world is 70% water and 30% land the odds are strong ly weighted toward a water landing aircraft are stationed at 12 points to locate the spacecraft in this emergency any commercial shipping in the area might then be called for assistance to pick up the astronauts freighter Oilers tankers any ship with heavy hoist equipment could also take the spacecraft aboard if the crew comes down over land they would use the ejection seats leave the spacecraft and land by Parachute astronauts have not only a complete survival kit to sustain them but they are trained to live off the land even desert and jungle whether gmany comes down over water or land recovery is planned and coordinated by a NASA team of Specialists they set up the requirements for a mission and work closely with the Department of Defense DOD then commits the necessary ships and aircraft to do the job the dod manager for manace spacecraft support directs Worldwide Recovery forces he is in contact with two main elements under his command the Atlantic recovery control center Kate Kennedy and the Pacific recovery Control Center Hawaii the red telephone puts him into direct contact with the highest levels of the Department of Defense for further assistance but all of this the red telephone and the contingency aircraft off pgoo island South Pacific seems remote on the 16th of March the crew is entering their spacecraft for what has every sign of being a normal flight at the same time on launch complex 14 The Atlas aena count is only 25 minutes from liftoff the geminy mission is largely based on a successful orbit of the target vehicle the aena count has no holds right on the nose at 10:00 Eastern Standard Time the atlas launch vehicle ignites Atlas has three main propulsion engines which ignited liftoff two are Booster engines and one is a sustainer engine the booster engines cut off first some 2 minutes 40 seconds into the flight the sustainer engine then takes over and propels the aena to an altitude of 65419 Ft two small verer engines on the atlas continue to position the aena properly in the lers of laun they cut off at 5 minutes 6 seconds after lift on the aena propulsion system then inserts the target vehicle into a circular orbit today the flight plan calls for a circular orbit of 161 nautical miles something close to that would be acceptable the aena propulsion system can be started from the ground and a burn completed to change the orbit but as the final figures come up to the flight Dynamics officer no inflight Burns will be needed aena has hit the plan circular orbit of 161 nautical miles this is a good beginning for any Rendevous flight the news is given the crew by the spacecraft Communicator pilot Scott comes back with just what the doctor ordered the flight director now calls for launch of giny 8 at 1140 and 59 seconds Eastern Standard Time offshore the launch site recovery forces are fully deployed they now can only wait like the rest of us stage two pre Val coming open 5 [Applause] Seconds T minus 20 seconds Mark 10 9 8 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ignition lift off Roger clock we got a roll program Roger roll good left all we a pitch Roger pitch program the liftoff came as flight director hjj had requested 1140 and 59 seconds geminy 8 goes into the clouds high above Cape Kennedy as the spacecraft comes out of the clouds an aerial chase plane picks it up for a close look at what it's like to ride as a spacecraft crew on top of a booster Mark 50 seconds you're looking good eight after 50 seconds the crew releases the restraints which are required for seat ejection giny 8 was inserted into an orbit of 86 nautical mes by 146 nautical miles very close to the planned values of 86 by 145 nautical miles we have Roger staging the launch site aboard is the first contain contingency that has passed successfully a carefully trained team has been released and returns to other duties with two good orbits Target vehicle and spacecraft gmany 8 had a head start on rendevu and docking the Maneuvers for rendevu would be essentially the same as those performed by gmany 6 so fast does the space program accelerate that Rondevu was the primary objective of geminy 6 in December but 3 months later it is March and Rendevous almost seems routine everyone is focused more on docking everyone except those who fly the mission then you take things step by step this is gmany control Houston about 2 minutes ago Neil Armstrong called in over Tanana Ree and he was able to confirm at that time that radar lock had been established Roger do you have solid radar lock on with the ago over radar second I'll you ourr Roger thank you sounds good IND 1 range elevation of about after radar lock on the crew will circularize their orbit inside that of the target vehicle meantime the ground does not sit still idly waiting for something to happen recovery forces are are constantly shifting in response to the orbit of the spacecraft changing station according to a detailed recovery plan the USS Cochran a destroyer in the mid Pacific takes position for a 4-4 recovery that is recovery in the fourth revolution in zone 4 Zone 3 will be the planned Landing zone for the next three revolutions for 5 6 and 7 after that gmany 8 will not be over a planned landing area again until the 10th Revolution then it passes over the Eastern Atlantic Zone if an emergency occurs in the eth or 9th Revolution the spacecraft will land in a contingency Area recovery is supported there by aircraft and available commercial shipping but right now much of this seems academic the crew has other business okay we've got a visual on the AGA 76 mil Roger understand visual Gena 6 miles hello Houston this is J I8 we're station keeping on the AA at about 150 ft where to go partner you done it boy you done a good job look at that Su that's beautiful need the darkle do I ever I see everything on that man that's great man that is really sick a bit of all right okay the first thing we really have to do Platform parall from 650 to 710 and they're giving us the SPC loaded jaw maneuver it looks like AB nominal time so they're going to give you that time I'll check your old stat display for you how bet those locky guys are just jumping up and down can is on yeah it's okay we are looking at the left or command Pilot's window as the station keeping exercise with aena begins giny 8 had no difficulty in maneuvering in the vicinity of the aena the onboard film as in past flights was at 6 frames per second and is being projected at four times that speed after station keeping for 35 minutes command p Armstrong begins to move in closer to aena Preparing his final docking approach both vehicles are traveling at approximately 17,500 mph we are looking at the Target docking adapter end of the agena the command pilot makes a docking approach by applying very small thrust increases to gmany 8 the maximum velocity difference between the two vehicles at docking will be about 1T per second when the command pilot is about 2 ft from the agena he will pause until he gets a go from the rose notot Victor the double check has been completed okay jim8 we have TM solid you're looking good on the ground go ahead and do we're going to hold off this SBC until he does get okay go ahead with your memory compare Roger let's know what you get out of [Applause] [Music] that we [Applause] are that was it two vehicles dock for the first time in space shortly after docking the crew was slightly surprised when Jim lble the spacecraft Communicator checked in with this caution goad H Roger reading your line and clear I have some uh information for you uh ready to copy stand by what kind of information is it if you run into trouble and the U the atud control system the ugena goes wild just send in command 400 to turn it off and take control with the spacecraft did you uh copy that all do we understand it was a routine check you punch 4 into the onboard computer this automatically turns off the attitude control system of the aena if the problem is aena control that ends it minutes later gmany 8 passed out of communications range beyond the island of Madagascar the crew Was preparing to begin a series of docking exercises and the Mason was between stations it had left 5-3 and was headed for a 6-3 recovery zone since we were in the fifth Revolution the retrofire experts were routinely updating their retrofire times these are usually planned for six revolutions ahead and stored in the onboard computer it was about this time that Jim LEL almost qualified as the space profit of the year for 7 hours after liftoff and 27 minutes of normal docking an excessive yaw and roll motion occurred the crew punched up 400 but the trouble was not in the agena unable to find an immediate answer Mr Armstrong undocked the roll rate continued to build up reaching about one revolution per second struggling to regain control Mr Armstrong was forced to fire the re-entry thrusters and gradually reasserted control over the spacecraft neither crewman experienced any loss of orientation gmany never approached a critical structural strain once the re-entry thrusters are fired there is the possibility of fuel leakage in orbit leaking a fuel essential for re-entry the flight had been highly successful through 27 minutes of docking but final action rests squarely on the shoulders of this man the flight director a decision came quickly fuel readings were too low abort that was the first decision others follow where do we recover a stream of facts flow into flight director Hodge's console exact orbital position weather in the Pacific available daylight in recovery zones and the whereabouts of the USS Mason a destroyer which had repetitiously practice picking up a boilerplate model of gmany in the waters of the Pacific came into its own millions of people suddenly learned that it existed with gmany stabilized in Flight there were several advantages to delaying re-enter for another orbit the retrofire officer would have an exact reading on retrofire times and the crew could prepare for re-entry and aircraft could be on station at Splashdown this is the way it would be the NASA coordinator leans over toward the dod console we want to recover in 7-3 the dod manager immediately punches the button which puts him in contact with Pacific recovery control Hawaii Hawaii alerts the C captain of the Mason he swings around and heads for 7-3 making 30 knots search aircraft scramble from okanawa they will be over the predicted Landing point 10 minutes before the spacecraft splashes down as gmany 8 begins its seventh and final Revolution weather is excellent in the splash down area the crew is busy the command pilot has time for only this brief reflection I'd like to argue with them about going home home but I don't know how we can that was all gmany 8 sweeps past Ascension Island retr fire will come up over Kano Nigeria air to ground Communications are broken but the Rockets fire right on the nose the crew begins their descent through the atmosphere this is the view they will see for a long time the high peaks of the Himalayas after these forbidding mountains The Sweep of the Pacific will look friendly and hospitable waiting for geminy 8 are rescue aircraft circling in the landing area ready to pick up an electronic signal from the spacecraft two aircraft from okanawa were originally assigned here but five others were quickly alerted and added to the recovery team when geminy 8 is only 3 mil away a c-54 catches sight of it on the main Landing parachute after that Landing is almost routine and gmany 8 landed within 2 mi of the predicted impact point the the first par rescue swimmer in the water is Airman First Class Neil Airman Neil is a veteran of combat rescue work and a good man to have on your side he was quickly followed by two other rescue swimmers it was early afternoon in the Pacific but almost 11:00 at night in the Atlantic where the USS boxer had waited the Mason 3 hours away at Splashdown reached the area at 3:17 p.m. local time crew and spacecraft both in good shape were soon aboard within 72 hours NASA scientists would pin down the source of trouble a short circuit in the wiring of the number eight yaw Thruster had caused it to fire erratically the possibility of this failure recurring is slight but a master switch has now been added to the gmany spacecraft the crew can throw this switch and cut off all power to the attitude thrusters in any future flight once the difficulty was corrected we could take time out to realize that gmany 8 had brought us closer to lunar exploration by demonstrating the first successful dock in [Music] space geminy 8 also gave many of us our first look at men like the three young rescue swimmers Airman Neil and Moore and staffs Sergeant hwit as well as the captain and crew of The Mason men who are there in every flight on remote stations doing their Duty and doing it well it was these men who cited gmany 8 on the parachute and took the crew and spacecraft safely aboard the Mason at that point we knew that the long months of training and the many simulations and the close interplay between NASA and the Department of Defense were sound the mission is ended the control room is empty but it will soon fill up again as simulations begin for the next flight we had achieved our first docking in space we experienced our first orbital abort in both cases geminy 8 came through with flying colors [Music]