Author
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Topic: Gemini 6 and 6A mission designations
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LM-12 Member Posts: 3324 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 12-15-2015 08:23 AM
These two NASA documents seem to contradict each other regarding which flight was designated the 6A mission: - From the "Gemini Program Mission Report - Gemini VI-A" prepared by the Gemini Mission Evaluation Team and dated November 1965, on page 1-1:
Because of the early termination of this mission and to identify it from other planned missions of the Gemini Program, this mission was designated Gemini VI-A. - From NASA SP-4203 "On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini" in Chapter 12:
After Gemini VII lifted off, flight control would be carried out in the normal manner while the pad was being prepared for the second launch. Once the flight controllers were sure the orbiting spacecraft was operating properly, Mission Control would concentrate on Schirra and Stafford in their spacecraft, and the tracking network would watch Gemini VII, record data, and send information by teletype to the Houston controllers. This mode would continue until the complicated rendezvous mission ended and Gemini VI-A (so called to distinguish it from the originally planned mission whose objective had been rendezvous with Agena) returned to Earth. Then Gemini VII would become the focus of communications again. Kraft was soon convinced that the operation could be carried out safely. He told his Mission Planning and Analysis Division to set up the flight plan so the second launch could take place as soon as the pad was ready.
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Jim Behling Member Posts: 1488 From: Cape Canaveral, FL Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 12-15-2015 02:18 PM
Typical one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing. Gemini Chronology calls the flown mission VI-A and press kit calls it 6 (but then again that is for the public). I would say VI-A is the proper designation since the actual documentation used to develop engineering and operations for the flown mission would need to be distinguished from the aborted mission. Going back to the aborted mission documentation and retroactively changing it to VI-A doesn't make sense. The "post flight" report for the aborted mission is likely the only documentation that has it "wrong." Much like KSC documentation had to add an R to the STS numbers after Challenger since those numbers were reused from a KSC point of view. |
LM-12 Member Posts: 3324 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 12-15-2015 03:18 PM
I see that a later Gemini Program Mission Report dated January 1966 identifies the mission cancelled on October 25 as "Gemini VI" and the mission launched on December 15 (50 years ago today) as "Gemini VI-A". |
onesmallstep Member Posts: 1313 From: Staten Island, New York USA Registered: Nov 2007
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posted 12-16-2015 09:03 AM
Reminds me of the sequence of Hubble repair missions flown and their designations; the third was split into '3A' and '3B' flown two years apart, so 4 was actually the fifth and final mission. And not to mention the Skylab 1/SL-2 etc. crew numbering. Typical head scratching and confusion. |
LM-12 Member Posts: 3324 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 12-16-2015 09:22 AM
Here is the document #1 Mission Report mentioned in the first post. |
LM-12 Member Posts: 3324 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 12-16-2015 09:25 PM
The Gemini Program Mission Report for the Stafford-Cernan flight in June 1966 correctly says "Gemini IX-A" on the cover.There was an alternate mission designation if the ATDA failed to achieve orbit. It would have been the Gemini IX-B mission: EVA and experiments. |
Headshot Member Posts: 891 From: Vancouver, WA, USA Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 12-17-2015 08:47 AM
I wonder if NASA had an alternate designation/mission in mind had Schirra and Stafford been unable to launch during the Gemini VII mission? Gemini VI-B? |
LM-12 Member Posts: 3324 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 12-17-2015 10:13 AM
In that scenario, maybe "Gemini VI-B" would have been the first rendezvous/docking/EVA mission of the program. |