Lost In Space | Project Gemini | Nasa Documentary #lostinspace #nasa #geminimission

Video from the channel Space and science documentaries about Project Gemini, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 1:08:29. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

This documentary reconstructs Gemini 8, a mission of NASA's Gemini programme. Its crew was Neil Armstrong, as commander, and David Scott. The piece follows the mission from preparation through to the emergency splashdown. It focuses on the malfunction that endangered the two astronauts shortly after they achieved the first docking between two vehicles in orbit.

The documentary presents the two crew members as experienced test pilots. Scott arrived at NASA with more than 3,000 flight hours. Armstrong had flown the X-15 rocket plane to Mach 5.74 and had ejected from a prototype lunar landing training vehicle. The mission was to dock with an uncrewed Agena target. The previous attempt had failed: the Agena launched on 25 October 1965 for Gemini 6 malfunctioned. Gemini 8 lifted off on 16 March 1966 aboard a Titan II. Before launch, Pete Conrad had to use a dentist's pick to free a harness connector that epoxy resin had left stuck. There were also concerns about loading commands to the Agena from the Hawaii tracking station.

After docking, with almost seven hours of flight and out of ground-station coverage, the combined vehicle began to spin. The crew believed the fault lay with the Agena and undocked, but the spin accelerated: one of Gemini's own thrusters had stuck on. The capsule reached a rate of one revolution per second. Armstrong regained control using the re-entry control system in direct mode, at the cost of 70% of its fuel. The tracking ship Coastal Sentry Quebec, with Jim Fucci as capcom, detected the emergency. An emergency splashdown in the western Pacific was then ordered, with the retrofire burn occurring over the Congo. The capsule splashed down at 10 h 41 min into the flight, just over a mile from the planned point, and was recovered by the destroyer USS Leonard F. Mason.