The plight of Gemini 8 seemed desperate enough while it tumbled out of control on its high orbit. Last week, when the perils of that wild ride were reviewed at a Houston press conference, Astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott seemed to have come even closer to disaster. Their firsthand account, and further interpretation of telemetered data, supplied frightening new details about Gemini's troubles; to make the danger even more dramatic, there were the remarkable color snapshots and motion pictures brought back to earth by the astronauts.
Shot by a camera through the spacecraft's window, the movie films first showed the Agena target vehicle sailing serenely through space (see opposite page) as the Gemini maneuvered carefully around it in a masterly exhibition of spacecraft control. Pictures of the docking process (see succeeding pages) reflected Gemini's cautious approach and clearly showed the green lights on the Agena's instrument panel signaling that all was well. Despite their silence, the pictures seemed to give the sound of a solid, satisfactory thump as the two vehicles mated firmly in space.
Then came the first dizzying and unexpected vision of the earth below, seeming to spin, and the sudden, explosive separation of the two spaceships. Finally, as the freed Gemini began to roll faster and faster, the camera recorded the alternating brightness of reflected sunlight and the darkness of outer space sweeping in accelerating flashes across the craft's nose until the film ran out.
A Futile Attempt. The vivid pictures were more than a record of near disaster; they were a testament to the skill and resourcefulness of the astronauts and the value of NASA's intense training program, which taught them not only to master the complexities of a properly operating Gemini spacecraft, but to expect—and to cope with—the unexpected.
When the Gemini capsule is operating properly, its attitude in orbit can be changed by firing strategically placed thrusters that can roll the vehicle, yaw its nose to one side or the other, or pitch it up or down. Once thrusters have been fired to change the orientation of the craft, however, other thrusters—pushing in the opposite direction—must be fired to stop the motion at the desired point. In the absence of an atmosphere to slow it down by friction, the spacecraft would continue any attitude-changing maneuver indefinitely unless reverse thrust were available to stop it.