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Author
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Topic: Recovered Gemini-Titan 5 stage at CCSFM
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 49865
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 01-19-2023 01:43 PM
   
collectSPACE First recovered US rocket stage returned to its launch site for displayThe first U.S. rocket stage to be recovered after its launch has landed a new home not far from where it lifted off almost 60 years ago. The Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum on Thursday (Jan. 19) took delivery of the booster segment that helped launch NASA astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles "Pete" Conrad on the Gemini-Titan 5 (GT-5) mission on Aug. 21, 1965. The 27-foot-long (8-meter) section of the Titan II rocket first stage had been at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.  |
mode1charlie
Member Posts: 1395
From: Honolulu, HI
Registered: Sep 2010
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posted 01-19-2023 02:02 PM
Fascinating new (to me) bit of history.The article doesn't specify the date, but I assume from context (and given the recovery photos) that the recovery was done sometime shortly after the launch in 1965? |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 49865
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 01-19-2023 02:46 PM
The recovery was on the same day as the launch, Aug. 21, 1965. |
Headshot
Member Posts: 1171
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 01-19-2023 04:27 PM
This section of Gemini 5's Titan II launch vehicle was recovered about 454 miles east-northeast of Cape Canaveral by the USS DuPont. Engineers estimated that the first stage struck the ocean at about 150mph. The impact ruptured the vehicle into two pieces. The aft portion sank due to the weight of the engines, but the upper portion, consisting mostly of the oxidizer tank floated. It was the first major portion of a manned spacecraft booster to be recovered.Contemporary images can be found on page 62 of Vol. 2, A New Environment, of Peterson's Book of Man In Space; on page 34 of the 12 Sept 1965 issue of AW&ST; and on page 6 of NASA Fact Sheet #291-C, Gemini 5 Flight. |
thisismills
Member Posts: 484
From: Michigan
Registered: Mar 2012
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posted 01-22-2023 06:55 PM
At least one presentation was made from the Gemini V booster after it was recovered. Happy to see that it is being preserved as for many years it sat outside.GT-5 Booster Martin Presentation  GT-5 Booster Outside at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center  
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Headshot
Member Posts: 1171
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 01-24-2023 12:58 PM
Here is a synopsis of the Titan II booster section recovery I gleaned from the Du Pont's ship's log from August 1965. The Forrest Sherman class destroyer USS Du Pont (DD-941) was part of the group of ships assigned to the Gemini 5 mission. Her crew were conducting recovery drills with a boilerplate spacecraft at their assigned station the morning of Gemini 5's launch. Shortly after 0950 hours the DuPont changed her course and speed from 144 deg and 8 kts to 270 deg and 25 kts. According to the ship's log they were "proceeding to recovery of sighted first state Titan II rocket booster." There is no indication of how they received this information or who did the sighting. After steaming along for an hour and a half, during which they made about 7 course corrections, they sighted the rocket booster at 1131, at an estimated distance of 6 miles. Twenty minutes later the DuPont was at All Stop. They put a motor whale boat in the water and by 1200 hours it came alongside the booster section. The whaleboat towed the booster to the DuPont's starboard side and by 1355 hours the booster section had been lifted on deck and secured to the fantail. The ship recovered its whaleboat and proceeded back to its assigned Gemini 5 recovery area. En-route, they conducted additional spacecraft recovery drills. After their Gemini 5 recovery duty ended, the ship returned to Norfolk VA on 31 August. Presumably the Titan II booster section was off-loaded shortly thereafter. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3572
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 01-24-2023 02:08 PM
Great research in checking out the actual ship's log for GT-5 that recovered the Titan II's first stage oxidizer section. I do have some NASA/USAF/USN(?) photos of the recovered GT-5 booster while at sea. Also, I do recall the Project Gemini report of the NASA Historical Series in Washington, D.C., in which one of the publications did have a photo from GT-5 of its recovered rocket stage, if I am not mistaken. |
GT76
Member Posts: 73
From: New Orleans, La. USA
Registered: Jun 2015
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posted 01-26-2023 05:46 PM
Looking at the recovery photos from the ship, I was curious if the presence of residual nitrogen tetroxide might have posed a threat to the ship’s recovery crew. |
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