PROUD CONQUEST

this is congressman Samuel L Devine representing the 12th district of Ohio for the next few minutes you're going to have an opportunity to take a trip into space to fall on the rendezvous flight since this film was made there has been yet another spaceflight with our own astronauts from Ohio but on this particular flight it's another step in history that you will share with in 1965 alone American Gemini teams logged 650 hours in space they traveled more than 11 million miles in orbit a distance nearly equivalent to 50 trips to the moon the goal of placing an American on the moon by 1970 isn't necessarily a dream any longer the flights of the geminus spacecrafts have made it a distinct possibility a major beta breakthrough occurred when astronaut Edward white opened the hatch of Germany for and stepped into space some of you may have seen that film recently but even this dramatic moment was soon eclipsed on December 15th 1965 185 miles above the Pacific Ocean man cleared away one of the major obstacles on the path to the moon Gemini 7 met Gemini 6 at the conclusion of a 100,000 mile race through space at speeds of 17,000 300 miles an hour the seemingly impossible task of placing two spacecrafts each weighing four tones in separate orbits 1,200 miles apart and then closing the distance to within one foot of each other had been accomplished it was now possible for man to fly to the moon and return to Earth by rendezvous with another ship it gives me a great deal of pleasure to be able to bring to you that historic moment the meeting in space of astronauts schirra Stafford Lovell and Borman and the story of their proud quest [Music] who let the propellant the bird mm seen on today ago standing about 10:00 p.m. last evening this was an operation took a little less than four hours in the diagram at launch complex 19 astronaut Cedric white and Meg Collins the backup pilots for the Germany 7 mission are in the gym never added comment but he was looking forward to a good long flight attending the breakfast with astronauts Borman and Lovell with Wally schirra and Tom Stafford poets for the Gemini 6 mission which will be scheduled from nine days after the Germany 7 liftoff when I first heard of this plan to rendezvous two spacecraft by launching a second spacecraft from the same pad within nine days I thought it was next to impossible the plans for the Germany 7 mission Frank Borman and Jim Lovell have arrived at launch complex 19 and they're lightweight juice they have their helmet attached basically this lightweight suit offers greater mobility and comfort for the crew which will fly 14 days in space however it offers the same protection in any emergency as the standard suit during the flight of Gemini 7 the crew will remove their lightweight spacesuit and fly in their underwear t-minus one minute and Counting the launch vehicle first stage engines will ignite and build up some four hundred and thirty thousand pounds of thrust t-minus 10 9 8 7 [Music] [Applause] coming up on two minutes Park two minutes our velocity is 3,600 miles per hour the crew reports they're go for staging which should occur in a very few seconds we're standing by for point eight which is the achievement of 80 percent of the desired velocity to put this eight thousand pound spacecraft in orbit wide eight c / v r7 i was in the control center at Cape Kennedy watching the launch of seven and as the spacecraft was inserted into orbit I glanced over at another TV monitor which showed the six launch vehicle being wheeled out of the hangar so that's how fast the reaction was taking place Borman reports he has the booster in sight our initial orbit was 87 by a hundred and seventy seven nautical miles this was very close to what we'd hoped for as a matter of fact I think that our launch vehicle was closer to nominal than any other one that's been fired after insertion we turned around thrusted back toward our second stage and then we station kept or remain with the booster of actually we were about 60 feet away from it for around 20 minutes about 22 minutes into the flight we thrust it away from our second stage and then got down to the business of a 14 day long duration flight we had about 20 experiments to perform in the two weeks ahead but we of course had to check our new suits out and we did the regular medical check-ups with the surgeons on the ground Gemini 7 is basically a medical mission it's the culmination of our efforts to increase or double man's exposure to the spaceflight environment ending with a 14 day manned space flight there were three principal problems left following our four and eight day flight these were the ability to sleep in a spaceflight environment secondly the response of the heart and blood vessels to the readapt ation to the ground base or 1g environment after being weightless and lastly the reduction or decrease in the number of red blood cells that is observed following spaceflight we were continually interested in the status of Gemini 6 and I must say that Elliott C and the people at MCC kept us very well informed you can tell him that the pad preparation schedule is going very well it's always taking about nine weeks or 63 days of actual work to clean up the pad a rec the booster made the spacecraft and check out the systems we studied the problems we found solutions we streamlined the work effort and within a couple of days the whole atmosphere improved with the plans 14 day flight this gave us some margin and the whole plan now appeared practical Houston Capcom breakfast going that was the soup configuration working out we heard some comments over can Arvin Gemini control here during the next pass across the United States the gemenese 7 crew will be given a go for a 61 - one flight the 61 would be the start of the 61st revolution the 1 refers to the western Atlantic landing area which is the prime landing area the spacecraft is over the Caribbean and Louisville is talking to dr. Barry let's cut in there ok could we have your sleep report think you're sleeping better now than you were the last couple of nights this is Houston flight how long have you been up there now let's say it's 139 hours 5 minutes 14 and a half seconds okay that's a lot jiminee six go for 119 - one thank you the words from the Cape is we are go they are go aboard Gemini 7 as I make their silent sweeps around the world are there 111 revolution the prime pilots for the Germany fix flight Wally schirra and Tom Stafford now on their way to launch complex 19 - brother spacecraft the launch of Germany's six is scheduled at the beginning of the 118th revolution of Germany 70-48 and all still going well with our Gemini 6 countdown here at launch complex 19 we've gone through a complete checklist once again and we are counting well we will have ignition at zero and from three seconds after ignition the launch vehicle will lift off on the start of the gemenese things right there cleared for takeoff [Music] slowly okay we're just sitting here breathing this was a rough one for us we'd been trained sufficiently but this was different than any simulation we ever had it did prove that man is still better programmed than any computer jiminee seven houston we were wondering if you saw the ignition at the Cape [Applause] Roger apparently it was on and off very quickly we'll keep you informed it was a great disappointment we've made two attempts to launch and still no liftoff 77 Houston do you still read us sorry to disturb your lunch but we have a message here we think you'd be interested in we're coming up on a special time here about five seconds mark you have just exceeded the world's manned spaceflight endurance record [Music] [Applause] firing Tennyson jhemini de la croix florida Hodgenville can go see so no see my Sandero germany diana go to rendezvous sue Tommy Mottola REO tape mr. Crabb wants to launch at 8:27 Eastern Standard Time so some four seconds before that we'll be looking for ignition the suppose that parity is on internal power 20 seconds five four three two what is seven seconds after they are why dinamic says the trajectory looks very good two minutes our velocity now 3,700 miles an hour [Applause] go okay their orbit is 87 by 140 the Cape Kennedy the American spacecraft Yemen eight-six has finally conceded in the start of her journey towards the space rendezvous with Germany's servant to astronauts of a beam and spent as December the 4th they were actually able to watch [Music] oh we have a book get effective for you here 87 by 1/4 0 are requiring set out a plan but over how to hide it up the first maneuver will be a height adjustment required due to a 7 foot per second under speed at insertion jiminy 6 is actually Apogee altitude is 140 nautical miles the required Apogee altitude is 146 nautical miles to correct this condition the command pilot will perform a height adjustment maneuver at the end of the first orbit using his a frying thrusters Japanese 6 Houston you're coming up on one minute to the burn mark Roger will right with you start a break we're showing the burn on the ground large burn complete Yemeni seven is now here in a 161 nautical mile circular orbit Germany six is now here 560 miles behind Yemeni seven in an orbit having an Apogee of a hundred and forty six nautical miles and a perigee of 87 nautical miles in this present orbit Yemeni six would catch up with jiminy seven in approximately two hours to allow the rendezvous to occur as planned the ketchup rate will be slowed by two manoeuvres the first maneuver will be at second Apogee applied in a positive direction to raise the perigee to 117 nautical miles Germany's seven instant the six burn is in approximately ten minutes I'll be switching to six now and I probably won't be calling you back we can I expect both spacecraft to be in the same exactly the same orbital plane therefore at two hours and 42 minutes after liftoff jiminee six command pilot Wallace you're off well y'all his spacecraft to the south and execute a plane change maneuver that will place his spacecraft exactly in the same orbit with Jimmy seven those spacecraft are now in the same orbital plane jiminee six for the second time will apply thrust at Apogee two circular eyes his orbit at 146 nautical miles and two also slowed his ketchup rate at this point in time jiminee six will be fifteen miles below jiminee seven and one hundred and forty miles behind by this point in time jiminee six should be within radar contact of Gemini 7 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] were three hours 52 minutes into this rendezvous mission and at the present time we show the spacecraft moving across the Indian Ocean for America to face class with our four astronauts on board meet 180 miles inducted over the Pacific Ocean at 11:25 local time Germany's six spacecraft began its circularization burn that burn was completed on schedule the crews also have completed successfully a radar lock on tests when the slant range distance between Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 has been reduced to approximately 32 nautical miles Gemini 6 will initiate the first of a series of terminal phase maneuvers these maneuvers are accomplished by the command pilot placing the nose of his spacecraft at his target jiminee 7 and thrusting along the line of sight there will be two mid-course correction maneuvers probably here and here these maneuvers will place him on a trajectory that will be slightly below and in front of jiminy seven at this point he will perform a velocity match our braking maneuver that will bring about rendezvous spacecraft seven and six are now about 25 miles apart and as mr. Kraft just observed we here on the ground have done all we can in the way of computations it's up to the crew now they're on their own [Applause] x7 Hawaii will be standing by you have anything for going on cutting you I didn't water lady food 120 [Applause] asking what their range is now [Applause] rendezvous and docking are most essential to complete the Apollo lunar mission now on this mission with Gemini 7 we in six came within about a foot of Gemini 7 shortly after that Jimmy seven maintained station on us as well rendezvous and docking are feasible for man cruise [Applause] over senior there's no if you see water coming out seven the deputy the water boiler [Applause] no you guys are becoming famous for rendezvous and doing all those good things after we completed the rendezvous maneuver we maintain formation actually we were stationed keeping for a period of about five and a half hours now this included an in plane fly rod maneuver and an out of plane fly rod maneuver during this period of time each of us controlled spacecraft six for approximately 50% over the numers we separated from Germany 7 at 6:00 p.m. Cape time this was performed by 9 feet per second retrograde in the new room we separated to a distance of approximately 20 miles and performed experiments for the next two orbits [Applause] my wallet says you talk too much [Music] finally we collapse for sure I stay went into a deep sleep at 9 p.m. Cape time having been up since 4 a.m. that morning good morning captain sure ah you're doing great [Applause] it was really a treat to come back aboard in style on number 3 elevator to have the realization that to accomplish the lunar mission we had to prove endurance and we're still proving it now and to effect rendezvous rendezvous is so important to bring our men back from the surface of the Moon and back to the earth and I hope also to number 3 elevator meanwhile Gemini 7 does Ron demand a slowly puffing up it's required 206 folded Frank we're moving right along in this suit situation I would like to get some more specific comments from you at this time you have any additional comments regarding use of the suits during the full duration all we need is a suit for reentry an emergency stored on board so Roger we copy worth 317 hours into the mission only 13 hours and 35 minutes from retrofire tomorrow morning the mission is drawing to an end the 76 series of missions was a very fitting climax to a successful year of Gimli flights Germany four explored extra beekler activity it also is the start of our build-up of long-duration missions and went for days 75 in turn went eight days we'd been in the water about 10 minutes when we saw a navy frogmen face in the right window he plugged it his inner phone and his first words were Merry Christmas the recovery forces were quite fast and I believe been about 26 minutes from splashdown we were onboard the helicopter the chief symptoms in fact the only symptom which we noticed was a heaviness of the legs that's all the 14-day mission has shown us that man indeed adapts to the space flight environment that his body does not show changes which increase with his increasing exposure to that environment the additional data allows us to medically commit man to a lunar mission as we go through these things the year does sound to be quite easy actually there are a number of difficult problems that were encountered and we're overcome some of these required considerable ingenuity the best example of this was actually the reaction to the difficulty we had in the October launch attempt of Germany 6 we were able to come up with a new mission we were able to cycle back into our operation faster than ever before and conducted this very rapid turnaround this effort on the 76 mission is an example of the American spirit as it exists through the years and his ample evidence that it exists today [Music] their voids will be a continuous reminder that the peaceful conquest of space is the only conquest in which modern man can proudly and profitably engage in this struggle all men are allies and the only enemy is the hostile environment the victory over the final enemy will belong not just to Americans but to the whole world [Music] the drama of the rendezvous of Germany seven and six and the medical breakthroughs achieved during the 14 days in orbit of Germany seven have been recorded but history may forget the first words spoken when man met in space they were garbled and not heard on the ground when still 200 feet separated Germany six and seven Wally schirra greeted his fellow astronauts in Gemini 7 with a laconic having fun the response was hello there hardly as dramatic as dr. Livingstone I presume but then neither will he was the exchanged moments later when Shara told ground control there seems to be a lot of traffic up here and Borman replied call a traffic cop not dramatic but perhaps prophetic or better than anyone else the astronauts knew the meaning of their accomplishment in the not-too-distant future space crews will rendezvous with increasing regularity orbiting laboratories in space ports will be assembled as man extends his reach toward the stars and space traffic may indeed become so congested that he a traffic cop will be necessary up there