I quattro giorni della missione Gemini 4

Video from the channel Luckyplane about Gemini IV, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 27:42. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.

This is NASA's film about the four days of Gemini IV, with commander James McDivitt and pilot Ed White. It follows the crew's preparation — they had spent a year training in the simulator and practicing emergency aborts — and describes in detail the extravehicular activity equipment: a helmet with three visors (the outer, gold-tinted one lets through only 10% of visible light), a suit with layers of aluminized mylar, nylon and felt, thermal overgloves, a 25-foot umbilical with a nylon tether able to hold 1,000 pounds, an emergency oxygen reserve good for at least nine minutes, and a small maneuvering gun powered by compressed oxygen.

Then comes the launch from pad 19, the attempt to fly in formation with the launch vehicle's second stage, which was abandoned to save fuel, and White's exit on the third orbit. It shows him maneuvering with the gun until it ran out, with communications with McDivitt and Houston audible up to the order to return. The extravehicular activity lasted 21 and a half minutes, and when it ended the hatch would not close; it was fixed thanks to the knowledge McDivitt had gained by disassembling its mechanism in St. Louis. The film also covers the eleven experiments (medical, measurement and photographic), including photographs of the Nile delta and the Sinai, as well as eating, sleeping on board, and the American endurance record.

This is 1965 footage: images from Cape Kennedy, from the new Houston control center, which ran a mission for the first time, and 16mm footage shot on board. Reentry is illustrated with onboard camera footage from the unmanned Gemini II flight.

A computer failure on revolution 49 led flight director Christopher Kraft to order a manually controlled roll reentry. The capsule splashed down at 12:13 on June 7, 1965, and the crew was recovered by helicopter and taken to the USS Wasp, where they underwent medical examinations. The film presents the mission as a milestone for the Gemini and Apollo programs.