posted 06-01-2015 05:12 PM               

When was the decision to go EVA made? The Gemini 4 press kit, published on May 21, 1965, advises:

No decision has been made whether in the Gemini 4 mission the crew will engage in extravehicular activity. This will depend on the qualifying of the extravehicular space suits and the hatch.

A decision to undertake the extravehicular test can be made as late as the day before the launch.

McDivitt: "Ed White will probably be the standee and I probably will hold onto him."

White: "Yes, I am the standee and he is the holdee."

posted 06-01-2015 07:16 PM               

CB: Okay. First of all, plans two months ahead of Gemini 5 called for the possibility of a crewmember poking his head out of the hatch. Was it always going to be Ed’s job, or was consideration given to you doing the stand-up EVA?

JM: Well, when we first started we both did it all together. I mean, he’d practice something and I’d practice something, so we just went along in parallel like that. Then by the time we got around to doing it, it was one of those things where I was the commander and that was a full-time job, and so I talked it over with the other powers around NASA and we decided Ed ought to do it.

CB: When and how did you find out that Ed was going to conduct a full EVA?

JM: Well, you know, I don’t think there were any plans ahead of time for us to stick our heads out the hatch; I don’t think that was the case. I don’t remember that – it was forty years ago – but, the way I remember it; we were going along and we thought we ought to do a – you know, there was no planned EVA whatsoever on that flight. It was a four day flight, and we, nobody had really been talking about doing an EVA at all on any of the missions, as far as I know, and then very secretly somebody decided we ought to try one, so Ed and I practiced at night, and we did all the EVA stuff real late in the evening. We did discover early on that the seat was not quite the right height, so we had to do some modifications to the seats so we could make sure we could get the guys back in the spacecraft. We did it all very secretive; even … nobody in the Astronaut Office knew we were doing it.

And then, a week or so before the flight – or maybe it was two weeks or so before the flight – the Russians did one, so we were really planning on doing the first one, but they beat us to the punch. To the best of my knowledge, there weren’t any plans to do an EVA on any Gemini flight up until the time we started on ours. And the equipment that we used was sort of developed for Ed and I on an air table, trying to figure out how we can make that little hand gun work and stuff.

posted 06-01-2015 07:39 PM               

Media reports contemporary to the mission suggest a stand-up EVA would precede a full spacewalk up until Gemini 4 launched with the "Go for EVA." McDivitt's and White's comments about "standee" and "holdee" made the headlines in June 1965.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Headshot:
The book is unclear if that date refers to the decision being made, or announced to the public.

---

posted 06-02-2015 01:42 AM            

JM: To the best of my knowledge, there weren’t any plans to do an EVA on any Gemini flight up until the time we started on ours. And the equipment that we used was sort of developed for Ed and I on an air table, trying to figure out how we can make that little hand gun work and stuff.

posted 06-02-2015 07:38 AM               

While I can't speak for him, I'm sure what McDivitt meant was that the non-flight personnel (prime and backups) were not informed of the EVA decision or the on-going training involved. Still, it strikes me odd that someone didn't notice that McDivitt, White, Borman and Lovell were in town but rarely seen at JSC during the day, or did they work long hours?

From what little I remember, I think the original Gemini 4 flight plan called for White do just a standup. The decision to send Ed out on a full-blown EVA was a direct response to Leonov's EVA on March 19th. At least that's what I remember reading. I'm not saying that's when the decision was made, but it makes sense that it was made sometime shortly thereafter, even if it wasn't announced until 9 weeks later.

The one thing I don't understand is that if EVA was such an important goal of the Gemini program, why were there no EVAs between Gemini 4 and Gemini 9? I understand the problem with Gemini 8, but why no EVA on 5, 6, or 7? I think there was talk about transferring astronauts (Stafford and Lovell) between Gemini 6 and 7, or maybe that was just media speculation. Either way, that idea was quickly squashed. It would have been a fun thing to see though, regardless of the danger involved. I think if Conrad, Lovell, and maybe even Stafford, had been able to go outside and perform a few simple tasks, Cernan, Collins and Gordon's EVA's would have been far more successful. They tried to do too much too fast.

posted 06-02-2015 09:32 AM               

If the first American EVA had been put off until Gemini 5, it would have likely been done early in the flight's planned eight-day mission. Also on that flight, a rendezvous with a passive target was planned as well. That led to the original Gemini 6 flight to rendezvous/dock with an Agena, until as is known a chase and rendezvous with Gemini 7 was done.

And it's unlikely any EVA would have been done on Gemini 7, as both astronauts used a new, lightweight space suit unsuitable for any outside EVA. Even if Lovell had gone out, it would have been one crowded cabin for the remainder of the long-duration mission with both men having to wear bulkier regular Gemini suits.

posted 06-02-2015 09:47 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by schnappsicle:
I think Collins' involvement in Gemini 4 was due to the fact that his astronaut specialty was in spacesuits and EVA. As an expert in the field, he had to be on hand for the training.

---

EVA was an objective of Project Gemini but it was very much a poor relation when compared to rendezvous and long duration flight. Bottom line is that most at NASA thought it would be pretty easy, just put on a suit and open the door. White's EVA added to that perception. Until pretty much Gemini 12, EVA experiences were not fully communicated to follow on crews and each EVA astronaut was surprised, a failing in project management.

posted 06-03-2015 08:29 AM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by David C:
Until pretty much Gemini 12, EVA experiences were not fully communicated to follow on crews and each EVA astronaut was surprised, a failing in project management.

---

posted 06-29-2015 07:58 AM            

The GTA-6 mission which will perform rendezvous and docking maneuvers and extravehicular activities, will have as its prime crew Astronauts Walter M. Schirra Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford...

Stafford, named to perform the extravehicular portion of the flight, said that after depressurization of the spacecraft and opening the hatch, he would egress into space on a tether line and retrieve a micrometeorite experiment from the exterior of the spacecraft, and also take some photographs. A depressurization and stand-up maneuver is scheduled for GT-5...

The mission of the GT-6 and the Agena is scheduled for the early part of 1966.

Gemini 6 was the first mission planned to include rendezvous, docking and EVA. Gemini 10 was the first mission to actually achieve that.