Soon after, astronaut Alan B. Shepard became the first American in space when he completed a minute suborbital flight. The Gemini spacecraft carried two astronauts and could maneuver in space.
Over the course of 10 missions, astronauts changed orbits, rendezvoused with other spacecraft, docked with an unmanned Agena rocket , and walked and spent long periods of time in space. Upon completion of the Gemini program, NASA learned how to fly, live and work in space for the durations of around two weeks that were necessary to send men to the moon and back [source: Garber and Launius ].
Apollo's primary mission was to land men on the moon , explore it and return them safely to Earth. The Apollo spacecraft carried three men and consisted of a command module crew quarters , service module rocket motor, fuel cells, fuel tank, maneuvering rockets, science packages and life support , and a lunar module a two-man, two-stage independent space vehicle for landing and lifting off from the lunar surface.
A Gemini-Titan spacecraft sits on the launch pad in , illuminated by pad lights and spotlights in the background. Grissom playfully dubbed the capsule ''Molly Brown'', referring to both a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic and his Mercury capsule, which filled with water and sank in the Atlantic after splashdown.
They were originally to launch in October and rendezvous with an unmanned Agena target vehicle. But the Agena didn't make it to orbit. After an initial launch attempt failed, Stafford and Schirra blasted off on Dec.
They eventually spent two weeks in orbit, the longest-duration flight to that time. Originally set for a May launch, it was redesignated Gemini IX-A and rescheduled after another problem with an Agena target vehicle. Stafford and Cernan would instead dock with an "augmented target docking adapter. They launched on July 18, The pair would later travel to the moon together during the Apollo 12 mission in November They launched on Nov. This notebook containing world maps and other data was carried by astronaut John Glenn Jr.
Ten manned Gemini missions were flown from through to improve techniques of spacecraft control, rendezvous and docking, and extravehicular activity spacewalking. One Gemini mission spent a record-breaking two weeks in space, time enough for a future crew to go to the Moon, explore, and return. The Gemini had two major units. The reentry module held the crew cabin and heat shield.
Behind it was the adapter, which consisted of two sections. The equipment section carried fuel, oxygen, and power supplies. The retrograde section carried retrorockets that slowed the spacecraft to make it fall out of orbit. Using small rockets on the adapter, the astronauts could not only change their orientation in space, but also their orbital path. Gemini was the first manned spacecraft that could alter its orbit during flight.
The adapter sections were discarded before reentry. The nose rendezvous and recovery section came off when the main parachute was deployed. The cabin section splashed down horizontally, with the two hatches on top. Spacecraft Specifications Length in orbit : 5. A heat shield protected the Gemini spacecraft against the enormous heat generated by reentry into the atmosphere at more than 27, kilometers 17, miles per hour. Like those of other early American and Soviet manned spacecraft, Gemini's heat shield derived from ballistic-missile warhead technology.
The dish-shaped shield created a shock wave in the atmosphere that held off most of the heat. The rest was dissipated by ablation—charring and evaporation—of the heat shield's surface. Ablative shields were not reusable. Used in the Gemini Program to boost the two-man Gemini spacecraft into Earth orbit. Ten manned missions were flown. Launch Vehicle Specifications Height with spacecraft : 33 meters feet Thrust at lift off: , kilograms , pounds.
American astronaut Edward H. White II was the pilot for the Gemini-Titan 4 space flight. He floated in zero gravity during the third revolution of the Gemini 4 spacecraft.
White is attached to the spacecraft by a ft. The visor of his helmet is gold plated to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun. Lovell Jr. Their primary mission was to show that humans could live in weightlessness for 14 days, a space endurance record that would stand until Their spacecraft also served as the target vehicle for Gemini 6, piloted by Walter M.
Schirra Jr. Stafford, who carried out the world's first space rendezvous. As a result, the Gemini capsule was launched with a service module that carried supplies and some life support. The Gemini capsule also featured thrusters around the nose of the capsule that made it possible for the astronauts to fly around a target.
Gemini 11 disconnects the tether from the Agena target vehicle used for docking practice in space. During the Gemini 11 mission, astronauts Dick Gordon and Pete Conrad spent three days in space, practicing the skills needed for the Apollo moon missions and carrying out the twelve experiments on board. In the first orbit of Gemini 11, the astronauts docked the capsule with the Agena, another orbiting craft.
The astronauts used the Agena's propulsion system and fuel to boost the Gemini capsule into a higher orbit. Later in the flight, the astronauts undocked Gemini from Agena, and then tried to spin the two crafts which were then only connected by a tether line. The spinning experiment was designed to see if the rotation of the crafts could simulate a gravitational force.
Gordon also had two EVAs Extravehicular Activities, also known as trips outside the capsule during the mission, once on a minute spacewalk and once standing in an open capsule hatch for about two hours. He used the time outside the capsule to take photos of Earth and the stars. As with all Gemini flights, the health of the astronauts was continuously monitored and relayed back to Earth during the mission.
Underneath their flight suits, the astronauts wore a biosensor suit that measured blood pressure, body temperature, respiration and heart rate. Film recorded during the flight was used for study of astronaut behavior in microgravity.
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