Gemini XII Mission

perhaps most of us have forgotten the precise day it was June 3rd 1965 but not many of us will forget the experience of seeing Ed White leave the open hatch of giny 4 he said simply all right I'm out Eva which began so successfully with this 20-minute walk in space was not so easy in later flights we scheduled five more Evas lengthened the time and added space work to the flight plan but we gave the astronaut too high a workload to perform and the problem was compounded by the Pilot's difficulty in positioning himself during work periods now we were coming up on the last flight at and the last Eva with questions about Eva still unresolved and geminy 12 would launch in 60 days part of the answer may be found under the water of this pool where we have submerged mockups of the spacecraft and a ginaa Target docking adapter we had done research in underwater simulation of space conditions for some months now for the first time a flight crew will incorporate underwater simulation into their Eva work training in an inflated pressure suit astronaut Edwin Aldren pilot for Germany 12 is weighted with 60 lb of lead he is positioned at the prepared aena workstation by trained scuba divers underwater simul ation creates a condition of neutral buoyancy it gives the pilot an effect quite similar to that of zero gravity astronaut Aldren has attached himself by a waist tether to rings on the aena from past Eva experiences we learned that astronauts spent far too much energy trying to stay in position while working waist tethers are one of the restraints that we are investigating for giny 12 the jobs now formed underwater by Pilot Aldren are those which will be done on gmany 12 attaching handholds using a torque wrench to tighten bolts making electrical connections clean up of his work area in short the type of jobs we know are basic to space station work as he will during Flight pilot aldin has moved by handrails from the aena workstation to the adapter area he is now ending a rest period we have carefully plan the rest periods of this Eva in relation to the workload leaning backward pilot Aldren tests another type of restraint used in the adapter area special foot restraints these are also called Dutch Shoes by some people for obvious reasons the chief advantage of underwater simulation is that it gives a training Eva pilot continuity of tasks as such it is a valuable addition to zg simulations in aircraft where the Zerg condition is contained in the parabola of flight for only 30 seconds pilot Aldren and his backup crewman pilot cernon are able to simulate the entire Eva exercise of geminy 12 without a break step by step from the beginning as it is written in the flight plan they run 2-hour simulations underwater several times and finish training almost on the eve of launch on November 11th 1966 the atlas agena Target vehicle for gmany rendevu and docking lifted off the pad at Cape Kennedy 7 minutes after 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time gmany 12 was now slightly more than an hour and a half from launch command pilot for the mission was Jim lble already a veteran of the longest man space flight 14 days on geminy 7 in the 4 days ahead he would log more hours in space than any other man his Pilot was astronaut Aldren the aena was inserted into an orbit of 164 nautical miles by 15 59 nautical miles Mission director Bill Schneider gave the final goal for the launch of the last geminy liftoff came at 3:46 Eastern Standard Time the launch vehicle propelled the spacecraft as smoothly as it had in 11 previous flights and giny 12 was for an orbit of 146 by 87 nautical [Music] miles the first order of business after insertion into orbit would be an m equal 3 rendevu or rendevu during the third Revolution maneuver proceeded according to plan a radar lock on with the aena was reported at 235 nautical miles and the crew cited the target using a seant telescope at 85 nautical miles but as the distance decreased to 64 miles the crew reported erratic radar response Roger wish we had Thea he's still having negative luck with all proceeding with radar the crew immediately went to a backup Rendevous mode on board computations the pilot bent over his charts relaying distance and burn rates to the command pilot at 2 5 plus [Applause] 48 this method had been used successfully as early as the gmany 9 flight and presented no problem 12 Houston 1 minute to L you can go and coder on Roger have fun but still it is interesting to note that the pilot making the computations this time had written his doctoral thesis on just this subject rendevu modes Dr aldin was as calm as though he were sitting in The Graduate stack studying and command pilot level brought giny 12 to a station keeping position at tener three hours 46 minutes after liftoff he began making his preliminary docking approach he will dock south of Japan within range of the tracking ship Coastal Sentry Quebec or csq in the flight controllers call letters is he dock csq uh that's not going to fight okay you satisfi with the eum both vehicles are go okay let them know that okay 12 csq csq we're giving you a call for talking Roger than you as docking practice continued in the third Revolution Pete Conrad the Capcom on duty broached a problem to the crew it concerned the agena primary propulsion system the PPS the problem appears to be one that indicates a possible uh turbine uh pump problem and we're going to give you a go a little bit later on as to whether you could make the PPS burn or not there had been a momentary drop in the pressure in the thrust chamber of the PPS during insertion it then returned to normal but that 1 second drop in pressure was enough to bring the Germany Specialists onto the floor of Mission Control the pressure drop could cancel plans for the PPS burn today which would inject the docked Vehicles into a higher orbit of 400 nautical miles the decision came in the fourth Revolution and was relayed through the Hawaii tracking station 12 Hawaii no go at the present time on the ppf burn the Big Burn such as we saw on Germany 10 and gmany 11 was out for this Mission but the crew was given no chance to settle back for a couple hours free ride or crack open a good novel even if they had one aboard Mission Control came up with a substitute plan it was this tomorrow G2 would take photos of the solar eclipse over South America for Eclipse phasing command pilot level would make two aena Burns but with a smaller secondary propulsion system and and one more change the crew would go to sleep an hour early but they would wake up 2 hours early Hawaii bid them good night on the fifth pass and summed up things to this point pretty well been kind of a busy day uh thanks much that about does it and flight has to tell you good [Applause] night two major events faced the crew on the second day after they were awakened by the canary station 12 Canary Capcom 12 clear hi you're L clear good morning how you have a good sleep oh so so not bad two solid hours sleep they said this has been the pattern of past flights you doze off and on during the first night and settle down to regular sleep the next night but they were ready first for Eclipse photography then a standup Eva gmany 12 was was in good position for the eclipse the command pilot shot time exposures for later scientific study the standup Eva began over the canaries the hatch was open at 19 hours 29 minutes into the mission pilot aldin reported that he had only a minor tendency to float upward and had no difficulty in maintaining the position he wished in the open hatch okay disgusting here it looks like they have a small tendency to float out but very little a beautiful view there was also preparation for the umbilical Eva of the following day a portable handrail was installed from spacecraft hatched to the cone of the target docking adapter it was left in position to be used Sunday a major portion of this Eva was devoted to Star Photography shooting so-called hot Stars much of who whose light is in the ultraviolet Spectrum 80% of this is filtered out by the Earth's atmosphere from gmany astronomers can study data unobtainable from the earth after 2 hours 28 minutes the hatch was closed and the crew was repressurizing their cabin over Canton Island Jim lble reported it was a pretty good exercise and I'm starving today death the flight director was obliging neat period for you starting at 2300 to [Applause] 2350 Sunday morning began rather abruptly shortly after 3:00 a.m. by the clocks at man spacecraft Center flight director CR woke the crew about an hour and a half early to check out fuel cell operation he took one bulky stack off the line the crew was then invited to nap a little longer waking up early for one reason or another would be a feature of this flight but the crew seemed to like keeping a farmer's hours they declined sleep and went to work taking another bite out of the 14 experiments of the mission on the 27th Revolution over canaran a go was given for the umbilical Eva and space work Eva began over the South Pacific Beyond contact with the ground mission control could only wait it out until the spacecraft passed over the states and into tracking range how was it going we had restudied work in space for this flight we replanned our tasks and it was a last chance for Germany but waiting is sometimes a hard job how was it going onboard cameras show us that it was going pretty well indeed pilot Aldren moves out the hatch along the portable handrail which he had installed during the standup Eva the day before he attaches a tether from the agena to the spacecraft that tether would come in for some good use later today the spacecraft was now passing over the United States and Mission Control received its first news of what was going on Buzz Aldren was at the aena workstation while working he is attached by a waist tether this gives him a secure position and he has both hands free for the job doctors were counting his heartbeat closely during the work period so far it had been pretty much below 120 after finishing up at the aena workstation Aldren makes his way along the handrails to the hatch and the rest period at this time he is at the adapter area and has been conducting the Eva for more than 40 minutes although we have no onboard film of the adapter work area the pilot performed seven tasks there much as we saw in the underwater simulation when we next pick up the Eva on film The Astronaut is again at the aena workstation he tests the waist tether and comments the restraints are good I don't see any problem in positioning my body at all the next assignment is use of a torque wrench on a bolt the same type of job had been performed at the after section the wrench can be set for any value from 50 to 200 INB he had performed 19 tasks 12 at the aena station 7even at the adapter a good Eva work session now like any good Workman the pilot sets about cleaning up his work area okay he said workstation is clear as he got back in Jim lble greeted him with okay here's your seat Buzz that's it JY 12 Houston Capcom 1 minute to L new Eva record beautiful job that new record was 2 hours 9 Minutes on umbilical Eva command pilot level undocked from his Target vehicle 47 hours 31 minutes from liftoff he was between stations between canaran and Canton Island command pilot lble is backing off slowly from the target vehicle pulling on the 100t Deon tether attached to his spacecraft during the umbilical Eva he will now attempt to extend this tether until it loses all slackness and becomes taut as expected that takes a bit of doing at first the tether whips back and forth and develops Loops but if the command pilot can position these two vehicles on the tether the one lower as the aena is and the other higher as is gin 12 there will be a very slight difference in the gravitational pull of the earth upon the two small as it is this difference may be strong enough to stabilize the spacecraft and the aena now gemin 12 is in its second daylight pass of this exercise Jim Lovel has his tether extended and taught he turns off both spacecraft and aena control systems the tether remains taught the two vehicles move through space maintaining their positions without use of thrust or fuel a technique important for future space missions after 4 hours and 20 minutes the tether exercise was ended command pilot level jettison the tether the mission had now lasted 51 hours and 51 minutes it was time for the crew to separate from their target vehicle they would perform a 6 per second paag grade maneuver to give them sufficient clearance Target vehicle and spacecraft went their separate ways and the crew slept the next day was Monday and it began for the crew at 1:15 a.m. over the rosenut Victor tracking ship the crew had a third and final Eva ahead of them it was a standup Eva this time devoted to ultra violet photography but there would also be an opportunity to jettison some excess Eva equipment no longer needed the hatch was open at 66 hours 11 minutes the pilot took ultraviolet photographs of the sunrise and of selected constellations after 51 minutes the hatch was closed and with it the crew had closed out three planned Evas with remarkable success not long after this giny 12 received its flight update for a 60-1 recovery it would now fly the full 4 days and come down in the primary recovery area in the western Atlantic Tuesday the fourth day began on a familiar note the crew was awakened early flight director CR was checking in the fuel cells again but no major problem although the more dramatic segments of flight were behind gin 12 the crew was quite busy completing outstanding experiments a preliminary retrofire time of 94 hours was transmitted to them suddenly a lot of time seemed to have gone by very quickly 19 months since Virgil Grom and John Young walked up this ramp the first crew for the first Twan spacecraft it hardly seemed possible so matter of fact it was that gmany 12 was making its last pass over the canaries and the last pass of the gmany program there were brief words with other old friends Kino Nigeria tanan reev canaran Australia and we are 1 minute from retr fire Mark all aircraft are on station as of 1849 Z Network s go I have an IP for you from our computer okay 24° 44 minutes north understand me the prime recovery ship for USS Wasp was on station some 600 m east of Cape Kennedy as the Retro Rockets fired the WASP waited as she had on four other occasions for gony 4 and giny 6 for7 and gminy 9 slightly more than 30 minutes to wait with her helicopters scanning the sky the spacecraft is entering the Earth's atmosphere at 4,000 ft we have a chance to make the last ride down with the crew looking out the Pilot's window 301 301 this film of re-entry was shot at 6 frames a second we are projecting it at normal speed 24 frames so our ride will be just a little fast heat of re-entry becomes intense particles flake off the ablative heat shield and fly onto the window the intense heat will now break off our communication with the ground for about 4 minutes we are Midway across the continent near the Mississippi Delta the crew has been coming in for 27 minutes Communications blackout is over a ground station talks to Jim lble hou our data shows your right in the [Applause] money Roger less than 10 minutes to splash down Main parachute sighted in full view of the WASP here the Atlantic Chief from the W they estimate the range of 5 miles two starbard they see a yellow orange shoot estimating altitude 2,000 ft the slow descent was followed down to the Water by cameraman and relayed to the nation by television well Houston we've got you on the boot tube you look [Applause] good splash down the gin2 flight is officially over at 2:21 p.m. Eastern Standard Time it passes into history the recovery Mission Begins the WASP was almost alongside the spacecraft as it splashed Down Rescue swimmers were in the water with a flotation color ready to check in with the crew Jim lble was the first to be lifted into the way helicopter it returned immediately with a sling to pick up Ed Aldren both were soon aboard and receiving the congratulations of the helicopter crew there would be time later to summarize the gmany program to add up the major accomplishments we now take for granted rendevu and docking long duration missions Eva pinpoint re-entry there is a just share for contractor for Department of Defense NASA for flight crew and ground crew and most of all for the man in the street for whom this program is ultimately designed and without whom it has no meaning but this day belongs to Germany 12 and its crew we must not stint them these men set out to do a job and finished that job thumbs up command pilot and pilot had added 5 hours 28 minutes of Eva exposure to the gmany record each established his own individual record level has flown longer in space than any other man 18 days 14 days on gmany 7 4 days just behind him Buzz Alin set his record of 2 hours 9 Minutes on umbilical Eva at workstations the crew increased our experience at tethered station keeping after successful rendevu and docking finally giny 12 added 14 successful experiments to the gmany program which has collected research data for scientist s on every flight more than 50 experiments were conducted on this program in the tradition of man flights the gmany mission flag is lowered for the last time at the man spacecraft Center as it comes down slowly we hear an echo of the words of the program manager it is now time to go on to bigger things and we will be able to go on with confidence because there was this program and it was called gmany