Ghosts of Gemini
Forgotten photos show the human face of NASA's early astronaut program.
- By Tony Reichhardt
- AirSpaceMag.com, March 20, 2012
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NASA/JSC/Arizona State University
During Gemini 7, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell captured this picture of a Polaris missile streaking through the atmosphere after an underwater launch from off the Florida coast.
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Comments (15)
Gemini will always be an unsung hero of the early space program: Lost (as you well put it) between "the right stuff" and the moon. Yet, in Gemini, everything we had to know for future lunar missions was learned. Rendezvous, docking, EVA, all the science of orbital mechanics, in-flight endurance, and on and on.
Further, there was significantly less automation in Gemini than in Apollo, so most of the work was done "hands on." Stick and throttle (so to speak) and just make the vehicle do what you needed it to do.
It was for just those reasons (as noted in an Air/Space Article from years ago) that many astronauts called Gemini their favorite. They really got to FLY.
I miss those days, and the political/technological gutts it took to pull it off.
bill stowe
Posted by Bill Stowe on March 22,2012 | 02:41 PM
Great new photos!
Posted by Todd Tolis on March 22,2012 | 03:00 PM
I was a young boy, born in 54, weaned on Mercury, To me, Gemini was a wonder onto itself, the first spacewalk by Edwin White, the Agena target vehicle, the link up of Gemini 6 & 7, the Soyuz hook up, lessons learned from Mercury, honed by Gemini, displayed by Apollo.
The loss of White, Grissom, Chafee on Apollo 1. All of the hard lessons, all done by hand, slide rules, whiz wheels, no GPS yet, we will not see that time again!
I am glad I had a ringside seat with Chris Kraft, Walter Cronkite, and others via a black and white TV with fuzzy, sometimes clear images of Gemini accomplishments. Aviation became my obsession, later my vocation, Gemini made it real in so many ways.
P.S. See the NASA GRIN website for more from each program.
Kevin Cogan
Posted by Kevin Cogan on March 22,2012 | 01:18 AM
Gemini is the less remembered and the most successful manned space program. A giant leap from Mercury to Apollo. Orbital maneuvers, long-duration flight, EVA, rendezvous, docking, and high-velocity reentry are achievements of Gemini.
Posted by Giancarlo Riolfo on March 23,2012 | 12:06 PM
I grew up with my father, Henry Nocke, working with the slide rule to help create and develop vehicles for the Space Program. These long ago photos are wonderful and a reminder of where we were and how we got here today.
Posted by Patricia Nocke on March 23,2012 | 04:11 PM
Thanks... for the memories! From 9/1958 - 1970 I was deaply involved in the design, development, testing & refinement w/AeroJet (Nimbus,CA Liquid Rocket Div.).
Starting w/Mercury, through Gemini (which had a wicked vib-
ation-resonance problems:actually
a "killer" for the crews),Apollo; and
finally doing the original feasability study for "the Flying
Wedge".. as NASA deemed the Space-Shuttle's "lifting-body." Although it never could more than fall: totally non-aerodynamic, a 30+
year success story. I lived and breathed that(then) esoteric era with co-workers our only confidants due to our Secret DOD clearances. Very hush-hush. Beyond all the ISP, Qn, Thrust, Temps., Spectral Density Analasys,
G'sRMS, & of course UDMH (that
fiery lethal acid...the clouds of which none of the Liquid Area Testing people With which I was proud to work..& you know who you are...Roy Larson, Ivan Corey,
Harvey Howard.. and scores more
& ALL EXEMPLARY PEOPLE /
INTELLECTS...FRIENDS OF MY YOUTH) ..
MEMORIES take us down lanes &
byways of their own choices.
Again my thanks & "see-ya" to all
& especially those of the G.A.S.L.
crew!!! (can you still spell...
Unsymetrical-DiaMethyll-Hydrazine?
Jefferson (I.D.#61100...:=)
fdjeffcoat2012 [at] gmail [dot] com
Posted by Forrest Jeffcoat on March 26,2012 | 03:52 PM
I believe there were several ideas for the cause.
The first being an anti-fog compound (my personal belief on the matter)
and the second being lithium hydroxide canisters used to scrub Co2 from the air inside the spacecraft. Because Lithium Hydroxide didn't give Young a problem on Apollo 16, it's my opinion that this was not the cause.
Posted by Vincent on April 1,2012 | 11:53 PM
The wonder of photography is the capturing of time. Years later it may reveal something of the moment which we passed by. Thank you for keeping the dream alive with these refreshed images. Respectfully Submitted.
Post Script, for that reason I was lucky enough to capture the Enterprise on her final voyage to NYC. PAB
Posted by Peter A Blacksberg on April 30,2012 | 09:56 AM
I lived and breathed Project Gemini when I was a kid. Those TV pictures of the slowly reclining pad 19 gantry, Paul Haney's updates, the launch of the Titan (which seemed so quiet to me via a TV), then the week or more of knowing that two Americans flew above me.
I vividly remember the "Spirit of 76" (Gemini 7 and 6 rendezvous), the Gemini 8 emergency, how Buzz Aldrin 'got it right' with his Gemini 12 spacewalk to the Agena.
And of course there was Ed White's space walk using that ridiculous hand held thruster (Buck Rogers equipment they called it at the time).
Our space program matured with Gemini; NASA learned to fly with Gemini. What an era!
Posted by John deNeergaard on April 30,2012 | 02:04 PM
Wow, this photo of Ed looks better than the one in my copy of Air & Space magazine. In the accompanying article they refer to Lt. Colonel White as a "Ghost in the Machine", I think this a bit flippant as he very much alive in not only this photo but in the photo of his EVA in the next page in the magazine.
Posted by Jeffrey Johnson on May 8,2012 | 12:13 PM
I love this photo, it's like I'm sitting in the spacecraft looking out. Once again the high res really comes out on my mobile device! Thanks ASU researchers and NASA!
Posted by Jeffrey Johnson on May 8,2012 | 12:18 PM
"Houston, constellation Union is now visible from the spacecraft, over."
Posted by Jeffrey Johnson on May 8,2012 | 12:41 PM
Recollections of a lens designer, early manned space flight:
Gemini was the first mission to use my UV lens as a spectrograph.
John Glenn was supposed to take it on his original Mercry flight, but glass had been put in the
capsule window to "protect" him from the UV, so no transmission! In Gemini, they could suit
up and open the hatch, so it was first used there. I don't know if it was done again, but I have one
of the UV spectra photos with a message from Karl Henize, ["Your lens did a great job for us"],
the astronomy adviser for the flight.
May 14, 2012
Posted by Harry R. McKinley on May 14,2012 | 02:05 PM
Howdy, may of '60, I started working on mercury,bldg 1, white room, then we moved to bldg.101,white room,and started gemini program.new altitude chamber in bldg 103, what an improvement at st. louis plant, space program. I started going to cape on space craft 5,with a crew, we changed out pyro dummy charges, to live charges, then run some ready test,then launch crew came to pib bldg, and picked up the craft for launching. On space craft 6, we did the same thing, only 6 never launched, we then got 7 ready, it launched first, then 6. and that was the only time you seen photos of either 6 or 7 photos in space, only time 2 space crafts were in orbit at the same time, durring mercury/gemini program. I enjoyed the working on both crafts, traveling to cape, watching them launch, and then working on them for further testing at the altitude chamber, and one more thing: Every space craft was re-ready to launch,and stored in a warehouse over on grahm rd. Mr. Mac and J. Kennedy had a deal that all crafts being ready for re-launch, as to pick one for a recovery if in case something went wrong, so every space crafts,mercury/gemini where ever they are, were ready to fly again. That was the way we did things at mcdonnell air craft in the '60's. I went on to shuttle program in '77, worked on l/ pod,taking it to white sands n.m., in '78, which we fired small eng and thrusters, mac built 17 pods, 1 for testing. Another successful program.
Posted by LAWRENCE A HEDIGER, EXP.FLT.TEST MECH on July 9,2012 | 02:18 AM
Beautiful picture! I love it!
Posted by Air lover on July 13,2012 | 12:35 PM