GEMINI: THE TWINS

foreign [Music] on a cape on the eastern coast of Florida Cape Canaveral the date was May 5th 1961. [Music] the United States Was preparing to send its first man into space the astronaut was Alan Shepard well I must say there was some apprehension yes I think that we wanted this thing with our eyes open but all of us realized the possibilities of partial success or failure so uh there was apprehension there's no no question about that the second and final sub-orbital flight was made by astronaut Virgil Grissom February 20th 1962 the first orbital flight was made by Astronaut John Glenn three orbits were completed May 24 1962 a three-orbit mission by astronaut Scott Carpenter October 3rd 1962 astronaut Walter Shira completed a six-orbit mission May 15 through 16 1963 the final flight of project Mercury a 22 orbit Mission by astronaut Gordon Cooper the goals of project Mercury had been accomplished the feasibility of placing a man in orbit and returning him safely was demonstrated all the McDonald people had done a real great job on his capsule and he was in good shape and all the systems worked beautifully and it made it rather a routine flight it was it was routine in that respect that it worked just like advertised the next phase of space exploration is Project Gemini the flight crew for each Mission consists of two men the Gemini astronauts [Music] the Germany spacecraft is a notable technological Advance over the Mercury new systems have been designed and only those the astronaut must use himself are inside the pressurized cabin not only can the attitude of the spacecraft be controlled orbital changes can be made during flight the spacecraft is designed to support long duration missions missions as long as 14 days the effects of prolonged space flight on the spacecraft and its crew will be determined the Gemini astronauts will use various techniques to complete Rendezvous and docking in space this is a technique which must be developed if successful lunar missions are to be accomplished the astronauts participate extensively in the Germany development and qualification program before they fly their space missions the Germany astronauts assist in conducting tests of the reliability and operation of spacecraft systems these systems are checked out in conditions simulating those encountered during a space mission during the several months preceding their flight the astronauts become familiar with every detail of the spacecraft they will use they gain valuable pre-flight experience in the operation of spacecraft systems following each series of tests the astronauts engineers and management Personnel discuss possible engineering changes yes we can recommend changes and oftentimes we can recommend relaxing certain specifications so if the specification for instance on a particular knob reads so many torque or so many inch pounds we find that we can operate with a different quantity we'll often change the specifications provided is acceptable this testing program ensures the operational reliability of the Germany spacecraft during a space mission for instance the returning spacecraft lands at Sea accordingly it must be qualified for post-flight operations in this environment astronauts worked with Engineers during the Germany sea worthiness qualification program after the on-deck checkout the spacecraft was placed in the Gulf of Mexico for 17 hours the astronauts rode the pitching rolling spacecraft everybody who has participated in this particular program has felt nausea at one stage or the other but it appears that after you become used to the vehicle and its motions and it's growing and pitching that this eventually goes away it takes about six hours while the astronauts worked the necessary spacecraft systems technicians on the tending vessel monitored the operation after the completion of the test the spacecraft was retrieved its seaworthiness was clearly demonstrated just as important as the exacting preparation of space flight equipment is the preparation of the flight Cruise academic courses and briefing sessions equate the astronauts with the theory and mechanics of space flight other aspects of the training program including survival training prepare them for contingencies which could occur should a mission be aborted the most important single area of the training program is flight simulation the Germany translation and docking simulator is used by the astronauts to practice the final portion of the critical Rendezvous and docking maneuvers this trainer consists of full-scale mock-ups of the Germany spacecraft and the docking end of the agina the Rendezvous Target vehicle used for Project Gemini the spacecraft and the target Ride On friction-free Air bearings trainer is designed to teach us to become familiar with the final phases of the Rendezvous and docking technique which will be so necessary for the lunar Landing Mission we cannot accomplish the lunarani mission successfully unless we have learned to Dock and Rendezvous Earth orbital missions and that's really uh one of the main reasons and justifications for Jim the Gemini program from the spacecraft the astronauts fly the last 100 feet of the simulated rendezvous an analog computer supplies the equations of motion for the simulation an instructor monitors and evaluates the astronaut's performance he can insert systems failures for which the astronaut must correct this is one of several simulators used for Astronaut training the key Training device is the Gemini Mission simulator from the crew station of this complex trainer the astronauts can fly their entire Mission from liftoff to touchdown without leaving the ground digital computers Supply the information governing the simulation the entire Mission or portions of the mission can be programmed the astronaut's performance is monitored at the instructor's station as in all simulations systems failures can be introduced here too the astronauts learn to correct or compensate for these failures the fight simulator is the most important part of our training that we do because we right here we can simulate as well as we can anywhere here on the ground exactly what we plan to do in space so I believe that the simulator is our most valuable training device and is the piece of equipment that we spend the most of our time preparation for our flight Crews for the early Germany flight spend over a hundred hours in this simulator this time will increase as the missions grow in complexity and duration sessions in the mission simulator continue until the time of flight then one day the simulations are ended this trip to the launch pad is for the real flight Gemini 3 the first manned Gemini mission the flight crew astronaut Virgil Grissom command pilot Astronaut John Young pilot the launch vehicle is ready the spacecraft is ready the men are ready we're out to get information on all those systems to determine not that it will just fly but how well it flies and will it support a long long duration Mission can can we be expected to take this system that we have designed and go on to a long duration Mission a 14-day Mission Willis will these Systems Support that do we have the capability uh do we have the capability on board to go around the rendezvous with another vehicle can we use this as a as a uh General Workhorse and platform for other scientific experiments how do we go about doing these things this is a great deal information that's going to come out of it foreign the flight of Gemini 3 was the first manned qualifying flight for the Germany program its success paved the way for the coming missions 72 days later the flight crew for Gemini 4 entered the spacecraft James mcdivitt command the pilot Edward White pilot the Titan launch vehicle lifted the spacecraft into the first orbit of the four-day mission during these four days data were accumulated on man's ability to live and work in space this was the Prime purpose of Gemini 4. near the end of the third orbit astronaut white left the spacecraft to become the first American to maneuver in space [Music] thank you while mcdivitt held a spacecraft steady white performed experiments designed to study man's reactions and abilities in this new environment there is absolutely no sensation of falling there was very little sensation of speed other than the same type of Sensation that we had in the capsule and I would say it would be very similar to flying over the Earth from about twenty thousand feet the Earth does you can't actually see it moving underneath you uh they I think as I stepped out I thought the uh probably the biggest thing this was a feeling of accomplishment of one of the goals of the Gemini 4 Mission these first Maneuvers demonstrated man's ability to control himself in space outside the spacecraft in achieving the goals of Project Gemini the astronauts are an integral part of the vast government industry and University team a team that is pushing man's Horizons into the Limitless universe foreign