FOUR DAYS OF GEMINI IV

[Music] at 4 o clock in the morning on June 3rd two men arose in Florida they began preparing for their day's work as they had since June a year ago Jim McDivitt command pilot of Gemini 4 ed white pilot in the right seat for the next few hours they would systematically progress toward launch the steps were now on normal routine they had done them again and again they had practiced flying Germany for in a simulator they had practiced emergency aborts they had their temperature and blood pressure taken one day in st. Louis as part of the thousand and one things the crew did McDivitt disassembled the locking mechanism of the spacecraft hatch later today that would become important but it was now June 3rd a year had ended for these men a year devoted to a single goal flying a Ford a mission in Gemini 4 [Music] in America's first long-duration mission Germany for would complete 62 revolutions the flight plan called for the spacecraft to be inserted into orbit at thirty two point five degrees north latitude at 185 statute miles and altitude over Bermuda people were already adding a new word to their vocabularies a VA it stood for extra vehicular activity some were uncertain whether you said eve EA or Eva but regardless of the pronunciation it would become an abbreviation of our time the flight plan called for a VA to begin on the second orbit somewhere over Hawaii the pilot was to open the hatch of a depressurized cabin and stand up over the west coast of the United States he would leave the spacecraft and expose himself to space for 12 minutes he would perform maneuvers over the United States he would return to Germany for and continue the mission as the spacecraft near the night side of the earth over the Atlantic this was the flight plan a special evie a suit and life support pack had been designed and tested by NASA engineers in the crew Systems Division the evie a helmet has three visors the inner visor is the normal suit visor which sealed in suit pressure over it are two special visors they are detachable and need not be worn throughout the entire mission the outer or Sun Visor is easily recognized from its gold coating it reflects both visible light and infrared rays with it attached only 10% of the sun's visible light is admitted beneath the Sun Visor but not visible here is an inner protective visor made of polycarbonate plastic the gemenese suit has layers of aluminized Mylar nylon and felt in combination they protect the astronaut against temperature and space particles special over gloves are worn to guard against extremes of space temperature if the astronaut should grasp the spacecraft during evie a as the astronaut leaves Gemini is attached by a supporting umbilical line 25 feet long the umbilical is actually one assembly can assisting of three elements a nylon tension line electrical wiring and an umbilical line the nylon line or tether is shorter than the umbilical line it takes all loads exerted during evey a and can withstand 1,000 pounds of fall the electrical wiring enables the astronaut to maintain direct communication with his command pilot it also records biomechanical readings for ground surgeons the umbilical line furnishes oxygen to the suit from the spacecraft's primary oxygen system the life support pack mounted on the parachute harness contains an emergency oxygen bottle if the umbilical line should fail the astronaut would have enough oxygen to support him for at least nine minutes more than enough time for him to return to the spacecraft safely in an emergency the pilot also carries a small maneuvering unit during e VA the so called space gun designed by NASA engineers of the flight crew Support Division the gun provides a limited amount of thrust from compressed oxygen for basic maneuvering experiments jiminee 4 is counting down on the launch pad as the count goes into its final two hours the crew arrives at pad 19 there have been no holds the weather is good the astronauts enter the elevator and ride it to the director white room which surrounds Gemini for the crew enters the spacecraft the hatches are sealed 7:30 to Eastern Standard Time the crew is now a part of the countdown they begin checking out the spacecraft systems it is t minus 100 minutes the launch vehicle and spacecraft continue the clean count interrupted only by a bulky erector which didn't want a lower properly that cost us some time but presented no serious problem at t minus 30 minutes the pad was cleared now there is just a spacecraft launch vehicle and two men on top of it all systems are good at the start a launch control at the Cape t-minus 10 minutes pouting six minutes before launch the spacecraft test conductor signed off to the spacecraft with these final words okay Jim have a good flight at 1016 Eastern Standard Time Germany for was on its way we have a roll program initiated like the lights have started and in sync anything roll program completed McDivitt reports and the pitch program has been initiated mark 50 seconds and we're go guidance reports ago the flight trajectory looks very very close to right on the nominal that's good flight data pretty noise but we're okay flight Pat oh good on my three little hi Jim McDivitt reports jiminy four is go for staging which will occur in a very few seconds we have staging and it's been confirmed here on the ground I select skid Germany for entered orbit with an insertion velocity of twenty-five thousand seven hundred forty-five feet per second within eleven feet per second of planned velocity the apogee of the first orbit was one hundred seventy seven point six statute miles the perigee 100.8 statute miles command pilot McDivitt started to work at once attempting to fly an airplane formation with the second stage of the launch vehicle the full resources of NASA in Houston were on hand to support Gemini 4 from a new three-story building flight controllers at the manned spacecraft Center assumed direct control of the mission for the first time in the space program the mission director now checked the status of a possible rendezvous ask him about his track everything seemed favorable at that time but as the first orbit progressed the second stage of the launch vehicle drew away the answer was almost immediate from the mission director I tell him as far as we're concerned we want to save the fuel we're concerned about the lifetime wasn't we are matching that booster okay and that was it okay the second stage of the launch vehicle went on to become simply space object 1391 it would burn up over them in Atlantic two days later I thought okay we're doing it go for your EBA to that okay the crew started their checklist for Eevee a but command pod McDivitt decided not to rush things he elected to go for Eevee a on the third revolution we're happy with that most of the world waited 100 miles below the crew had completed final preparations the cabin was be pressurized and the hatch open coming up on Hawaii McDivitt reported that he was satisfied and ready to begin Eevee a go he's got some nice elevated rates which we expected that looks great let's go oh I Houston flight just a flight away Capcom go jelly we're ready to have him get out when he is jamming a four-hour light Capcom we just get it status Hawaii having it for OIF Oh God that goes in the sisca then I feed it out I got dragged a little bit I don't want to fire the gun yeah okay okay put a little roll in better data I am your mother I'll come other people that's very critical I'm under my own control [Applause] [Music] yep okay I'm not good enough [Music] control [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] remote your air-to-ground California go local it's all the difference in the world with this [Music] I guess Capcom the flight director says get back in history will record that command pilot McDivitt opened the hatch at 242 Eastern Standard Time and avid left at three o'clock along the eastern seaboard pilot white had open up a new frontier for Americans to explore in 21 and 1/2 minutes evie a was completed inside the spacecraft the crew was faced with the problem the hatch would not close that day in st. Louis when McDivitt took apart the locking mechanism now paid off the hatch finally closed the cabin was repressurized and the mission settled back into its four-day cycle the crew was busy stowing the extra equipment what do you think America settled back into its daily routine TV and radio return to their regular programs news reporters and editors concentrated on other stories like their earthbound counterparts the crew settled down to working eating sleeping but most of us have not flown in orbit it might seem that two men in space for four days have considerable time hanging over them what is it like your basic job is that of a space test pilot and like all test pilots you must follow a careful routine each spacecraft system must be checked out on a planned schedule you verify your readings with ground control it goes like this [Applause] [Applause] in the past an astronaut stuck very close to the basic job of flying a mission performing as many simple experiments as his flight plan permitted but the four days of Germany forgave command pilot McDivitt an opportunity to live in space and plan work on a scale impossible before his flight plan included 11 onboard experiments for convenience they may be roughly divided into medical measurement and photographic categories there were three medical experiments in flight exercise in-flight photo cardiogram and bone demineralization the five measurement experiments included measurement of radiation spacecraft exterior radiation spacecraft interior measurement of the electrostatic charge accumulated on the spacecraft exterior measurement of the direction and amplitude of the Earth's magnetic field sextant type measurements for navigation study and finally there were three photographic experiments synoptic weather photography synoptic terrain photography earth limb photography all eleven experiments are important in increasing our knowledge of how man will live and work in space but the photographic experiments are visually more interesting to us as Gemina four swept over Africa it looked down on the ancient Nile Delta from approximately 120 miles in space in a single photograph it caught a view that includes portions of seven countries in which some 25 million people live experts identify Alexandria dead center screen at the bottom of the frame this is port side entrance to the Suez tel aviv and the Dead Sea where their long historical associations are left screen and to the right almost parallel by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez the Earth's limb or boundary layer of red and blue above the atmosphere was the subject of another experiment reduced to a grayscale by filters these photographs will be studied with a micro densitometer to determine the excess elevation of the blue Lim above the red as an aid in space navigation the experiments were conducted throughout the entire mission and all were completed on the second day as Gemini 4 came within range of Hawaii it set a new American space record everyone was pretty casual people went to work and returned home in many parts of the country it was already summer with the weekend coming up the cars were heading for the beach the mission of Gemini to live and work in space for 4 days went on food has been planned as a working man's ration 4 meals a day 2,600 calories laid out on a table it looks a little different from a regular meal plastic packages with bite-sized meals or freeze-dried food to be reconstituted with water but it was good solid everyday fare meat salmon chocolate pudding chicken potato soup after the first day the astronauts ate two prescribed four meals a day they would come down with only a portion of the last meal left but sleep in space required an initial adjustment by the crew it was somewhat like sleeping out under field conditions each astronaut showed individual patterns of response to the new environment and white seemed to sleep more restfully than McDivitt during the final two days of the mission command pilot McDivitt took a series of formal and informal motion picture shots with a 16 millimeter camera mounted at the pilots window the camera turns inward for a brief moment we are able to ride tourists class with gemiini for watching the crew at work we catch a glimpse of a space sunrise flaring in brilliant color over the Verizon using the same camera McNiven photographed ground objects including this small island in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast on another occasion he photographed approaches to Yuma Arizona the detail seen here shows great promise for scientific exploration of the earth heretofore impossible using this technique we could chart the major currents of the ocean study weather patterns and map the geology of the earth shortly after the new shift came in to Mission Control on the fourth day the first spacecraft problem arose the computer did not function the malfunction was pinpointed in the 49th revolution when it did not clear up mission director Christopher Kraft made a decision Germany for would go to a rolling reentry he immediately queried the command pilot [Applause] the 60th revolution the fourth day and the computer out but no problem the flight surgeons made their final checks both men were busy stowing equipment now it was the 62nd revolution coming up on Hawaii the orbital attitude and maneuver thrusters were fired to assure orbital decay and re-entry if the retrograde Rockets did not fire now television and radio were back again a nation paused on a Monday morning waiting to fly in with the crew of Germany for Germany for would fly the same type of re-entry as Germany to an earlier unmanned flight we will illustrate the re-entry of McDivitt with film from that flight this is an onboard camera Gemini to looking through the spacecraft window the film is reproduced at four times speed for Houston Capcom oh your weather is still very good job communications with the ground break off but the onboard tape recorder is running we listen to two men returning to Earth after four days in space [Music] sit back and relax in countries much better from here get ready for the team I think we got now about size nice first up and it's a good one isn't it [Music] during re-entry the USS Wasp launched 13 search and recovery aircraft Germany for splashed down at 1213 Eastern Standard Time June 7th 1965 it was cited by a search aircraft seven minutes later navy frogmen swiftly attached the floatation color and at 12:39 command potted McDivitt opened the hatch both men took a deep Gulf of fresh air four days in space had ended the command pilot requested a pickup by helicopter and in a matter of minutes the prime recovery helicopter had the crew safely on board they were flown to the deck of the wasp Admiral William McCormick commander of the western Atlantic recovery forces and his staff offered the first formal congratulations on the flight the crew then walked to the carrier elevator bound for their physical examination a long series of physical examinations would follow in the days ahead the condition of both astronauts was excellent while the doctors were examining the crew another group of men were scrutinizing other data just as closely the engineers who designed the spacecraft and solve the problems took a hard look at what happened they analyzed miles of coded tape which spell out each detail of the mission the results were more than a demonstration of man's ability to go into space in return Germany 4 was a major advance in manned spaceflight operations the first time two men had spent four days in space the crew eating working sleeping in space demonstrated that man can perform a number of functions in the exploration of space in a properly controlled environment and suffer no significant ill effect from extended spaceflight Colonel Voight demonstrated that an extra vehicular astronaut could travel in a precise manner from point to point for the first time during an extra vehicular activity a spacecraft was flown with steady control by its command Colonel McDivitt also performed reentry under manual control further evidence that man can circumvent problems which arise by carrying out a primary operation in a straightforward manner [Music] Germany 4 was an encouraging landmark in relation to the future objectives of both hegemony and Apollo programs [Music]