Project Gemini Pt. II [4K]

Video from the channel Homemade Documentaries about Project Gemini, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 2:43:57. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Second installment of a documentary about Project Gemini. It covers the crewed missions from summer 1965, after Gemini 5, through Gemini 12. The throughline is learning orbital rendezvous and docking and extravehicular activity. Both capabilities were necessary to reach the Moon.

Orbital rendezvous, which Buzz Aldrin had studied in his MIT thesis, depended on Lockheed's Agena stage, launched by an Atlas. On October 25, 1965 the Agena intended for Gemini 6 was lost, and Gemini 7 (Borman and Lovell) took over as the target. It launched on December 4 for a mission of almost 14 days. On December 12 the Titan for Gemini 6A shut down on the pad and Schirra decided not to eject. On December 15 Schirra and Stafford finally launched and closed to within short range of Gemini 7. In February 1966 See and Bassett died when their T-38 crashed into the McDonnell plant in St. Louis, and Stafford and Cernan moved to Gemini 9. The documentary ends by noting that the USSR had not flown since March 1965, that Khrushchev had fallen, and that the Soyuz was left for 1967.

On March 16, 1966, Gemini 8 (Armstrong and Scott) achieved the first orbital docking. Afterward, a short circuit left thruster No. 8 firing, which sent the spacecraft spinning at up to about 300° per second and forced an emergency splashdown in the western Pacific. On Gemini 9A, the ATDA target's fairing failed to fully open because its lanyards had been installed incorrectly. Cernan suffered exhaustion and his visor fogged during his EVA, and the AMU test was cancelled. Gemini 10 (Young and Collins) reached a record apogee of 411 nautical miles and visited Agena 8. Gemini 11 (Conrad and Gordon) achieved rendezvous on the first orbit, tested tethered rotation flight, and performed the first automatic reentry. On Gemini 12, Lovell and Aldrin completed the rendezvous using manual calculations and a sextant because the radar had failed. Aldrin, trained in a pool and with more handholds, completed three successful EVAs.