posted 05-01-2012 10:14 AM               

The technology curve and bold steps in Gemini blow my mind. Not to mention the men willing to strap into a machine that just months before failed regularly.

posted 05-01-2012 02:20 PM               

I was a high school student in 1965 and 1966 and those years – besides enjoying the happy teenage life – are bound with Project Gemini for me. There was something going on in space and the highlights were the Ed White's EVA, unforgettable rendezvous of Gemini 6 and 7, first docking with Agena and subsequent dramatical early return of Gemini 8, hunting the "angry aligator", artificial gravity experiments with tethered Agenas, and a lot more. And those beautiful photos released after the flights! Plus the benefit of being able to watch the Austrian TV with live coverages of lift-offs and recoveries.

posted 05-01-2012 05:47 PM               

I would recommend reading Michael Collins' book Carrying The Fire and Buzz Aldrin's Return to Earth for some very good stories about Gemini. Other books worth pursuing are Gene Cernan's Last Man on the Moon and Tom Stafford's We Have Capture.

posted 05-01-2012 06:25 PM               

I remember reading On the Shoulders of Titans, back in college. I was supposed to be studying for some useless thing and instead spent huge amounts of time reading all of the NASA publications that the library had. When I came to On the Shoulders... it was the discovery of space adventure of the first degree; Anti-gravity tests, EVA's, space emergencies,endurance missions, simultaneous missions. Every mission was more amazing that the last, and all of it was within the span of just a few short years.

posted 05-01-2012 08:18 PM               

This was perhaps sort of inevitable. Gemini lacked the air of pioneering, Right-Stuff, Cold War derring-do that fed the mythology of the Mercury Seven, and it couldn't approach the grandeur or the epic aura of Apollo. Gemini was the bridge between the two.

But man, what a bridge! Gemini took the US from just basically demonstrating that we could put a guy in space and get him back alive to having the confidence, birthed through experience, that we could perform the tasks and maneuvers (Rendezvous, docking, EVA, etc.) that made Apollo possible...and did it all with ten manned missions in less than 2 years.

posted 05-02-2012 01:52 AM               

Gemini, on the other hand, was an amazingly capable spacecraft that paved the way to the moon. Spacewalks, long duration flights, orbital rendezvous, docking, all these techniques were worked out from scratch and perfected in a series of amazing flights in an incredibly short time.

posted 05-02-2012 07:24 AM               

Mercury was fairly static, they could show the rocket on the pad, file footage of the brave U.S. astronaut in training, and a map of the world with a moving dot showing where the spacecraft was, but not much else. The talking heads ruled Mercury coverage.

Gemini actually DID things in space. For example, the astronauts stayed up a long time. With Gemini IV the networks wisely stopped providing continuous (and sometimes inane) coverage and had news updates every half hour or hour.

They had to show EVAs. Since there were no television transmissions from Gemini, they either used marionettes on strings or stuck some poor schmuck in an ill-fitting spacesuit, dangled him from some wires in front of a black background, and had him flop around trying to demonstrate what they thought the actual spacewalker was doing at the moment.

Explaining the concept of rendezvous in space was something they never got quite right (as I recall). They did not rely on animation they way we do today, and resorted to toy trains (one with a Gemini model and another with an Agena model) on circular train tracks with track switches used to represent the various OAMS course correction.

Sometimes this stuff worked and sometimes it didn't ... but it was EXCITING TIMES!

posted 05-02-2012 11:59 AM               

Jules Bergman was ABC's go-to guy for space coverage, of course, and stayed with it until his health prevented him from going any further (some of the coverage from late in his career is painful to watch because it was obvious at times he was ailing).

Cronkite was front-and-center on any space shot, and had help from virtually the full range of CBS correspondents. Those most often associated with space coverage include Bruce Morton, Nelson Benton, Bill Stout, Charles von Fremd, and Dallas Townsend (frequently deployed with the press pool aboard the recovery ship).

Some of the network coverage of Gemini is up on YouTube if you look around a bit, and it's fascinating. One of my favorite clips is from an EVA simulation on CBS, where the door on the Gemini mock-up malfunctions rather spectacularly.

posted 05-02-2012 01:21 PM               

The basic thing about Gemini is that every mission was a first of some kind. There was always someting happening that had never been done before. That's what made those missions so exciting.

I was in the second grade when Ed White "walked" in space. I remember my teacher telling us about it in the days before the launch. We had a TV in the room and "watched" the EVA. I remember being quite excited by all the talk about what was happening at the time. A few weeks later, I picked up a Life magazine and saw the images McDivitt took. I was totally blown away by the beauty and awesome splendor of the photos. I knew then what I wanted to do with my life. Unfortunately, I wasn't cut out for the military, so I'm left with collecting space photos instead of taking them. Gemini 4 was also notable for attempting the first rendezvous when they tried to maintain formation with their expended booster. McDivitt did as he was trained to do, but every time he thrust toward the booster, he'd get further away. That was the single most valuable lesson of the Gemini missions. McDivitt's error caused NASA to rewrite it's rendezvous procedures.

As you know, Gemini 6 was originally scheduled to perform the first docking in space, but their Agena failed to reach orbit. The great thing about NASA in those days was their ability and willingness to improvize. Instead of scrubbing the mission, they turned it into a rendezvous mission. I lived in Tampa at the time and I saw Gemini 6 launch into space during my walk to school. That was a huge thrill for me. My heart still pounds with excitement just thinking about it. I was especially thrilled with Gemini 7's 2 weeks in space. I'm still amazed that anyone could live in that small a space for 2 entire weeks. Borman & Lovell became my heros that December, not only for putting up with each other, but for the remarkable job they did in sticking it out to the bitter end under grueling circumstances.

Gemini 8 was the one that turned me from an admirer to a full-flegged space lunatic. I came home from school and turned on my TV only to hear the astronauts were in danger. Naturally, I had no clue what was happening, but Walter Chronkite managed to fill me in enough to know that what was happening wasn't good. A short time later, my father came home from work and we sat together well into the night until both astronauts were safely aboard the recovery ship.

posted 05-02-2012 11:41 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Lasv3:
Another Gemini must-read is a book by David M. Harland "How NASA Learned To Fly In Space".

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I'll definitely second that - a great read that used some little-touched sources and images to bring the missions to life.

posted 05-04-2012 03:38 PM               

Here is this capsule, which was a sporty two seater with two windows facing front. It was almost like a sleek looking fighter plane, but without wings. Apollo was indeed a more capable spacecraft, but it just looked kind of bloated in its shape (be aware this is not a criticism of the programs, just purely the asthetics of a 41 year old trying to recollect what might have made his young mind attracted to Gemini).

So to me, a Gemini LOOKED like a sleek spacecraft. It didn't have this ungainly looking LM contraption bolted to the front of it like Apollo. Sure, Apollo could do more, but Gemini could do a lot and look good at the same time. I am kind of amazed that anyone would be willing to spend 8 to 14 days stuck inside one of those things though, let alone two people. Having Cooper and Conrad, then Borman and Lovell getting stuck with that kind of duty, I had to feel for them. But flying maybe a three to four day mission with an Agena docking and perhaps an EVA, sure, sign me up! Get me at the controls of that little beastie!

posted 05-08-2012 01:52 PM               

I grew up during the space race, and especially liked my 1/48 model Gemini capsule, and the mission patches. Those were the action-packed barnstorming days with the Gusmobile!