Four Days of Gemini 4 - NASA's First Spacewalk Documentary

Video from the channel The Federal File about Gemini IV, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 27:44. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.

This is an official NASA film about the Gemini 4 mission, crewed by James McDivitt as command pilot and Edward White as pilot. It follows the flight in order: the crew's preparations, the countdown at Pad 19, the launch, the first American extravehicular activity (EVA), four days of life on board, reentry and recovery in the Atlantic. It mixes footage shot during the mission with recordings of the communications between the spacecraft and the ground. It explains the EVA equipment: a helmet with three visors, including a gold outer one that lets through only 10% of visible light; a 25-foot umbilical with a nylon tension line, wiring and oxygen supply; an emergency bottle with oxygen for at least nine minutes; and the maneuvering gun, which ran on compressed oxygen.

The film dates from 1965 and was produced by NASA itself. It covers the period from 3 June, with the launch from Florida, to the splashdown on 7 June 1965 near the aircraft carrier USS Wasp. It includes footage shot on board with a 16-millimeter camera mounted at the pilot's window, photographs of Earth (such as the Nile delta and the Suez Canal) and scenes from the Houston control center. To illustrate reentry, it uses onboard footage from the uncrewed Gemini 2 flight, shown at four times actual speed.

Gemini 4 was the first long-duration American mission and was planned to complete 62 revolutions. It was also the first directed from the new Houston control center. The attempt to fly in formation with the launch vehicle's second stage was abandoned to save fuel, and McDivitt delayed the EVA until the third revolution. According to the narration, White's time outside lasted 21 and a half minutes. On returning to the spacecraft, the hatch would not close, and it was fixed using the knowledge of the latching mechanism McDivitt had gained in St. Louis while disassembling it. The crew carried out eleven experiments (medical, measurement and photographic) and followed a diet of four meals and 2,600 calories a day. On the fourth day the onboard computer failed, and Christopher Kraft decided on a rolling reentry, which McDivitt flew under manual control. The film presents the mission as an advance for the Gemini and Apollo programs.