Forty-five years ago today — December 15, 1965 — astronauts Walter M. Schirra, Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford launched from Cape Canaveral on the Gemini VI-A mission.
(The Gemini-VI capsule, taken from Gemini-VII. NASA image. Note the “Beat Army” message.)
Gemini-6A was originally scheduled to launch on October 25th, but that launch was cancelled because the rendezvous target vehicle — an Agena, launched an hour before the scheduled Gemini-6 liftoff — did not reach orbit. The mission was recycled and another attempt was made on December 12th, but “the launch was aborted one second after engine ignition because an electrical umbilical separated prematurely. This was the first time an astronaut mission was aborted after ignition start.”
As we noted a few days ago, Gemini-VII was already in orbit, and rendezvoused with Gemini-VI while the two spacecraft were in orbit together:
First radar lock indicated a distance of 396 km. Two more major thruster burns preceded the final braking maneuver at 2:27 p.m. EST. Rendezvous was technically achieved and stationkeeping begun at 2:33 with the two Gemini spacecraft in zero relative motion at a distance of 110 meters. Stationkeeping maneuvers involving the spacecraft circling each other and approaching and backing off continued for 5 hours 19 minutes over three and a half orbits.
I find it interesting that this launch occurred five years to the day after the Pioneer-31 (or Pioneer-Z, or Atlas Able 5B) mission, to place a satellite in orbit around the Moon, failed when the booster exploded a minute after liftoff. Especially in the early days, no doubt our astronauts were all “steely-eyed missile men.”
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