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Feb 27

Space Rocket History #52 – Gemini 1 – Test Flight – Part 2

Posted on February 27, 2014 by spac9750

One second after 11 o’clock Wednesday morning, April 8th 1964, the Titan II booster’s first-stage engine ignited. Four seconds later, the 156 ton vehicle lifted from the pad on that curiously lambent flame so distinctive of Titan II’s hypergolic propellants. Within moments, Gemini-Titan 1 vanished into the hot Florida sky, beyond reach of human senses but not electronic sensors. Telemetry data flowed back to mission controllers at the Cape, telling them that the launch was as nearly perfect as it looked.

Experiment Pallets

Left Instr. Pallet

Gemin 1 Launch

To the Pad

By Dave

Celebration Tang

Feb 06

Space Rocket History #49 – Gemini Systems Design – 1962

Posted on February 6, 2014 by spac9750

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On January 3 1962, “Gemini” became the official designation of the Mercury Mark II program. The name had been suggested by Alex Nagy of NASA Headquarters because the twin stars Castor and Pollux in constellation Gemini (the Twins) seemed to him to symbolize the program’s two-man crew, its rendezvous mission, and its relation to Mercury. Coincidentally, the astronomical symbol (II) for Gemini, the third constellation of the zodiac, corresponded neatly to the Mark II designation…

OAMS and RCS

Nomenclature.

Partial Spacesuit

Agena B

Jan 30

Space Rocket History #48 – Gemini Design – 1961

Posted on January 30, 2014 by spac9750

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“The main trouble with the Mercury capsule was that most system components were in the pilot’s cabin; and often, to pack them in this very confined space, they had to be stacked like a layer cake and components of one system had to be scattered about the craft to use all available space. This arrangement generated a maze of interconnecting wires, tubing, and mechanical linkages. To replace one malfunctioning system, other systems had to be disturbed; and then, after the trouble had been corrected, the systems that had been disturbed as well as the malfunctioning system had to be checked out again.” James Chamberlin

Proposed Lunar Lander

Modified Titan II Booster

Adapter Section of Mark II

Ejection Seats

Fuel Cell

Rendezvous

Jan 23

Space Rocket History #47 – Gemini Concepts

Posted on January 23, 2014 by spac9750

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This brings us to Project Gemini. Gemini started after Apollo had begun, in part to answer a crucial question for Apollo. Was rendezvous and docking in orbit a feasible basis for a manned lunar landing mission?