Posts: 730
From: Longview, Texas, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 06-07-2012 02:12 PM               

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Did NASA engineers have to find a way to make sure the straps trailing the aft end on the Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 spacecraft did not do a repeat performance for later missions? Surely they did since the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit (AMU) which was meant to be tested on some of the later flights was stored there.

Seems to me those straps might have posed a danger to an astronaut trying to spacewalk back to rear of the spacecraft to attach himself to the AMU.

Posts: 891
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 06-07-2012 04:07 PM               

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The straps were some sort of kapton tape, I believe, and were not inherently dangerous, except for the possibility of getting tangled. Gene Cernan did not report any such tape during his Gemini IX EVA, to my knowledge. What he did find was that the aft end of the adapter section had a jagged metal edge caused by the explosive charge that separated Gemini IX from the Titan II second stage.

I don't believe that Mike Collins on Gemini X or Richard Gordon on Gemini XI went to the aft end of the adpater section during their EVAs. I know that Aldrin did on Gemini XII, but I am unaware of what he observed as far as tape debris or jagged metal edges are concerned.

Posts: 104
From: Alabama, USA
Registered: Feb 2011

posted 06-21-2012 12:14 AM               

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It's a shame that we don't have a better photographic record of the Gemini EVAs. I know that all of them except for Aldrin's were troubled affairs to say the least, but there were some unique and visually interesting views that had to have been had by the astronauts of the exterior of the spacecraft.

Michael Collins' lost camera on 10 was an absolute shame. He had one-of-a-kind views of Gemini and Agena from a distance.

There is maybe ONE decent view of a Gemini taken from outside by a spacewalker (Cernan's 09 shot from the left side) and NO photos of the adapter section up close.

I always wonder about what we missed seeing on the 2 Apollo color mags left on the lunar surface on 12 and 14's EVA-2.