NASA: GEMINI: Project Gemini Status Report #2
Video from the channel Nasa Library about Project Gemini, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 33:34. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.
What it shows
NASA status report on Project Gemini covering the year between January 1964 and January 1965. It opens with the uncrewed flight Gemini 1 (GT-1), launched from Cape Kennedy and not recovered, which reached orbit at 5 minutes 37 seconds with launch vehicle oscillations smaller than expected. It continues with the status of spacecraft, Gemini Launch Vehicle (GLV) and Agena target production, and describes the spacecraft in detail: reentry module, adapter, 16-thruster orbital attitude and maneuver system, reentry control, computer guidance and L-band radar, communications, and ejection seats stabilized with a ballute and parachute. It closes with the suborbital flight Gemini 2 (GT-2) and its recovery.
When and where it was filmed
Footage from 1964 and early 1965 shot at the McDonnell plant in St. Louis, Missouri, at Martin Marietta's facilities in Denver and Baltimore, at Complex 19 at Cape Kennedy, during flotation tests in the Gulf of Mexico, during ejection tests at El Centro, California, and from an F-106B, and during the recovery of GT-2 by the USS Lake Champlain. It includes an onboard camera view during reentry, sped up four times.
Context
The spacecraft weighs about 7,000 pounds and measures about 19 feet long and 10 feet in diameter. The launch vehicle is a Titan II modified for crewed flight, with backup flight control and a malfunction detection system. Crew preparation includes the 16-hour 35-minute flotation test with James Lovell, the eight-day suit evaluation carried out by Schweickart, and the simulators: Virgil Grissom and John Young for Gemini 3, with Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford as backup, and James McDivitt and Edward White for Gemini 4, with Frank Borman and James Lovell as backup. GT-2 was delayed by lightning on August 17, two hurricanes, and an automatic abort on December 9 due to a hydraulic failure. It lifted off on January 19, reached an altitude of 98.9 miles, covered 2,127 miles in just over 19 minutes, and splashed down about 20 miles from the recovery ship. The heat shield, reduced to half thickness for the test, kept the bondline at 225 degrees, well below the more than 500 its design allowed. The mission was deemed a success and cleared the way for the first crewed flight.