posted 01-27-2018 10:42 AM               

This second book on the Gemini mission offers a detailed account of the Gemini 4 mission which saw the first extra vehicular activity by an American astronaut. The mission also attempted a station keeping exercise with the spent upper state of the Titan launch vehicle and extended the US duration record to four days. This was as important as the EVA in that it was a significant step in increasing the orbital experience of American astronauts from a few hours on earlier missions to a few days, something the Soviet cosmonauts had demonstrated two years previously. On Gemini 4 this was only the first step to gradually increasing the duration to eight and then to fourteen days by the end of 1965.

The flight of Gemini 4 in June 1965 stands as a bold step by NASA to push the endurance of their missions, and the pictures of Ed White conducting his short spacewalk remain iconic images from the early space program. His experiences on that short journey together with those of subsequent Gemini spacewalkers raised confidence that EVA would be possible during Apollo in the vacuum conditions on the lunar surface. This mission also discovered that developing the techniques of rendezvous with another object in space would not be so straightforward as originally hoped for, that living in a small spacecraft for four days was a challenge in itself, and indicating what might be expected on future planned long flights.

This book continues the Pioneers in Early Spaceflight series to examine each flight in the Mercury and Gemini series. Despite the challenges, Gemini 4 and its two-man crew undertook a huge gamble, and one which fortunately paid off. The mission was also the first time the mission control center at the Manned Spacecraft Center, near Houston, Texas, was utilized for monitoring the mission, commencing a tradition that continues today with the International Space Station program.

• Paperback
  
• Springer (August 11, 2018)
  
• ISBN-10: 3319766740
  
• ISBN-13: 978-3319766744

posted 02-19-2018 08:20 AM            

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Originally posted by onesmallstep:
....Other than Apollo 8's Earthrise and Armstrong's frontal shot of Aldrin on the moon, his photos on Gemini 4 are probably one of the most recognizable and reproduced in the NASA archives.

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Agreed, but to that list I would add the pictures of Bruce McCandless on his untethered EVA.

posted 12-27-2018 02:01 PM               

Hopefully, I will see a hard copy soon... though I am pleased to see it available in any form.

posted 08-30-2019 05:10 PM            

I do have a couple of questions about the series:

1. Will there be more coverage of MOL as the series progresses? I know it came up a few times in the first book.

2. When can we expect Gemini 5, and possibly any other titles in the series?

posted 09-02-2019 05:32 AM               

I must say the inspiration for the series was Colin's excellent Mercury sextet and I feel honoured to continue the format with Gemini. Credit for the final product must also go to my brother Mike, who's professional editing refines my scribbles and draft to some semblance of order.

In reply to your questions, I had thought of adding a few inserts on the MOL programme in future titles, but to give it full credit that programme deserves a title all on its own someday, and before you ask, no probably not by me...at least not for the foreseeable future!

Gemini 5 will be completed by the end of this year/early 2020 and published later in that year. But before that I am currently completing two joint co-authored works first.

As for the rest of the Gemini series, originally Gemini 6 and 7 were to be covered in one book.However my research into the Gemini 6 mission suggests that both would benefit from separate titles, and these are currently planned for delivery towards the end of next year as a couple of other earlier contracted projects take precedence.

I would like to do a straight run of the remaining missions- Gemini 8 to 12, but again several contracted time-critical projects have to be fitted in between these, but you never know.

If my capabilities and circumstances allow there could very well be a release of several titles in quick succession, its happened before, but I was younger then of course.

posted 10-31-2019 04:35 AM               

I will have to look deeper. I have some memos from Crew Systems EC-7 from that era and other documentation in my archive I can pull to check.

I am currently completing a couple of other projects then will shortly go back to Gemini 5 so I will be able to research the topic further then.

I will also ask a couple of contacts who may be able to help.

I plan to include post-flight lessons learned and recommendations from Gemini 4 in the Gemini 8 title, which was the next flight to have an EVA in its flight plan. Of course the docking incident prevented that but the information remains relevant to the Gemini 8 preparations.

posted 12-01-2019 03:26 PM               

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Originally posted by Dave Shayler:
Thanks for your kind comments, I am pleased you enjoyed the book.

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Jim McDivitt has stated both he and Ed White trained for the EVA, and the decision as to which astronaut would perform the EVA was very much a last minute decision. Do you have any info as to who made the call and the reason(s) behind the final choice?

posted 12-06-2019 01:39 PM               

I briefly address the topic of which member of the Gemini crew would perform EVA in the Gemini 4 book [page 13] based upon a January 1964 EVA programme plan [reprinted in Volume VII of Exploring the Unknown NASA SP-2008-4407 pp 268-72] which stated Gemini EVAs would be conducted by just one astronaut (the pilot). This was linked to the decision to have the Command Pilot look after the control of the vehicle, which in hindsight was logical. So I would not say it was a 'last-minute decision' to let the Pilot perform EVA over the Command Pilot.

In a 2005 interview (by my friend Colin Burgess) Jim McDivitt said that "when we first started we both did it [meaning the stand-up EVA training] all together." Firstly Ed White would practice something "and [then] I'd practice something", so we went along in parallel" When the idea to conduct a full-exit EVA evolved the command pilot role, by then, was a full-time job so McDivitt said he "talked it over with the other powers around NASA and we decided Ed ought to do it." Those 'other powers' were probably Chris Kraft, Deke Slayton, maybe Alan Shepard, Robert Gilruth, and possibly George Low and George Mueller, also some of the leading people from the Crew Systems Division but this was not made clear in the interview.

This decision meant that only Ed White's hatch would be opened during the flight, leaving McDivitt's hatch closed and sealed from prelaunch to post-landing, reducing the risks. Theoretically, McDivitt could have opened his hatch to assist White in an emergency. Clearly the difficulties in doing that were significant and options very limited due to McDivitt's suit not being of the type to support EVA, the lack of umbilical length and the need to remove hands-on control of the spacecraft to name a few.

The crew had previously experienced difficulties in operating the hatch during training and later in-flight. The effort in closing the hatch after the EVA quickly led to the decision not to reopen it again to dump the unwanted equipment after the EVA. This resulted in a crowded and uncomfortable condition inside the spacecraft for the next four days leading to challenges in getting all the items stowed and restrained for entry and landing.

The difficulties of single person EVA on Gemini will be returned to in the Gemini 9 title, but I thank you for your question and would welcome any further information on this matter from other Collect Spacers to allow the fuller picture to be recorded. My approach to the Gemini series has always been to look at the detail behind the main headlines and mission events, following up on questions such as this and the earlier query from Fra Mauro about the 'nick' on Ed White's EVA suit, which is still being looked into, and include the answers where appropriate in subsequent titles.

posted 12-09-2019 10:46 PM               

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Originally posted by Dave Shayler:
Jim McDivitt said that "when we first started we both did it [meaning the stand-up EVA training] all together."

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I have read that the plan for the first EVA had been to conduct a stand-up EVA on Gemini 5 followed by a full EVA on Gemini 6. The March 18, 1965 EVA of Alexi Leonov moved this forward to Gemini 4, and skipped the stand-up EVA. Schirra nixed the Gemini 6 EVA to concentrate on the rendezvous and docking.

posted 01-05-2020 04:26 AM               

I strongly believe the photo on page 132 was taken during prelaunch as White wore the blue cloth cover over the gold visor of his helmet, a helmet never used in training nor preflight tests.

Four Omega Speedmasters were flown and Omega only noticed this in LIFE magazine June 18, 1965.

posted 01-05-2020 08:34 AM            

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Originally posted by Philip:
I guess the title of the book could have been Gemini IV (Roman numerals).

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