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Watching It Go. Gemini 4's ascent went precisely according to plan: accelerating to 17,500 m.p.h., the spacecraft entered into an orbit that took it 175 miles high at apogee, 100 miles high at perigee. At 6 min. 6 sec. from liftoff, Command Pilot McDivitt set off a string of explosive bolts that set the capsule free from its second-stage booster. The booster dropped loose and
McDivitt swung Gemini 4 around so that it was flying blunt end forward.
The booster, tumbling slightly and mov ing slower than the capsule, dropped about 400 ft. below.
The original flight plan had directed McDivitt to stay close to the booster, which was the size of a house trailer and was rigged with 2,500,000-candle-power lights so that it could be seen for 300 miles. It was contemplated that White, during his space walk, might touch the trailing booster. If he had, it would have been a significant step toward i rendezvous between two spacecraft.
But from the very start, McDivitt had trouble staying within range of the booster. "I have been struggling here not to let it get too far from me," he told Houston Control shortly after the booster fell away. McDivitt manipulated the capsule's Orbit Attitude Maneuver ing System (OAMS) comprised of 16 rocket engines mounted about the cap sule to allow changes in altitude and direction. The fuel supply for OAMS was separate from the crucial fuel cache McDivitt would need to fire the retrorockets for his return to earth later on.
The craft headed over Mexico to ward the end of its first orbit. The ship's OAMS fuel supply had gone from 410 Ibs. to 228 Ibs. in the hide-and-seek game with the booster. Director Kraft told McDivitt to take it easy on the fuel in chasing the errant booster. The astronaut replied: "It's out farther than we expected." A little later he asked Houston, "Do you want a major effort to close with this thing or save the fuel?" The instant answer: save the fuel and forget about the booster. Resigned, McDivitt said, "I guess we're just going to have to watch it go away."
By now, Gemini 4 was over the coast of Africa, well into its second orbit—the orbit in which Ed White was sup posed to get out and walk around.
White began to ready his EVA gear.
There were 54 items to check from his flight-plan list, and it was painfully slow going. White began to perspire heavily; almost every drop of sweat was noted by Houston's wizard gear.
As the craft flew over Australia, Mc Divitt radioed the tracking station there: "We don't have arty time at all."
From Houston, Kraft told him to delay White's EVA mission until the third revolution.