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Episodes Tagged with "Jim Lovell"

Posted on July 30, 2015

Selection of Group Two virtually depleted the pool of qualified candidates from the small corps of test pilots in the country, and it was the last group for which test-pilot certification would be a requirement. The new trainees reported to Houston i...

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2-Back row- See, McDivitt, Lovell, White, & Stafford. Front row- Conrad, Borman, Armstrong, & Young

1- Project_Mercury_AstronautsBack row- Shepard, Grissom, Cooper; front row- Schirra, Slayton, Glenn, Carpenter.

Posted on August 5, 2015

With Group 4, for the first time, the selection criteria did not include a requirement for test pilot proficiency. Selectees who were not qualified pilots would be assigned to the Air Force for a year of flight training. The primary scientific requir...

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4-Group 4 L-R- Garriott, Gibson. Front row, L-R- Michel, Schmitt, Kerwin.

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Posted on August 13, 2015

“Some of those guys came in figuring, “I’ll write my textbooks and my thesis and teach [university courses] and I’ll come by twice a week and be an astronaut.” Well, that didn’t work …. We were devoting our lives to this whole thing, and you couldn’t...

5-Back row, from L-R- Swigert, Pogue, Evans, Weitz, Irwin, Carr, Roosa, Worden, Mattingly, Lousma. Front row, from L-R- Givens, Mitchell, Duke, Lind, Haise, Engle, Brand, Bull, McCandless

Posted on September 17, 2015

While flight-preparation crews were having problems, Grissom, White, and Chaffee were finding bottlenecks in training activities. The chief problem was keeping the Apollo mission simulator current with changes being made in spacecraft 012.

3-Astronauts Grissom, Chaffee, and White check the communications headgear in preparation for what was to have been the first manned Apollo flight – Apollo-Saturn 204, scheduled for 21 February 1967

2-CM-012 – Apollo One- arrives at Kennedy Space Center, 26 August 1966

1-Command module 012 and service module 012 in workstands at the North American Aviation plant, Downey, in 1965

Posted on October 1, 2015

“So the reason I took those symbols was that I think this was the most important thing I had going for me, and I felt that while I couldn’t take one for every religion in the country, I could take the three I was most familiar with.”  Ed. White

Chaffee, White, and Grissom

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Posted on October 8, 2015

“On my honor I will do my best, To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times;  To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” The Boy Scout Oath.

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1-Chaffee at the consoles in Mission Control during the Gemini 3 mission

Posted on November 23, 2016

Thomas P. Stafford was the first member of his Naval Academy Class of 1952 to pin on the first, second, and third stars of a General Officer. He flew six rendezvous in space; logged 507 hours and 43 minutes in space flight and wore the Air Force comm...

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Posted on December 7, 2016

John Young enjoyed the longest career of any astronaut thus far. Over the course of 42 years of active NASA service he made six space flights and is the only person to have piloted, and been commander of, four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini,...

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Posted on December 21, 2016

On May 18th 1969, a king, some congressmen, other distinguished guests, and a hundred thousand other watchers waited at scattered vantage points around the Cape area. At 49 minutes past noon, Rocco Petrone’s launch team sent Apollo 10 on its way to t...

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Posted on September 26, 2018

Kraft wanted to fire the descent engine now, get the ship back on its free-return slingshot course, and when it emerged from behind the moon and reached the PC+2 point, execute any maneuvers that might be required to refine the trajectory or increase...

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Posted on May 29, 2014

Posted on June 5, 2014

From the previous episode, it was decided that the name of Gemini VI would be changed to Gemini VI-a to distinguish it from the originally planned mission whose objective was to rendezvous with the Agena target vehicle. Gemini VII would be launched f...

GT7 Launch

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Lovell before the launch, in the special G5C space suit, which had a zippered hood with a visor instead of a solid helmet

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Moon and clouds over the Western Pacific as seen from Gemini 7

Borman and lovell boarding

Posted on June 12, 2014

From the previous episode, we have Gemini VII waiting in orbit for Gemini VI-A to launch and rendezvous.  Remember, Gemini VII could only remain in orbit for 14 days, the maximum duration of its flight.  The goal was to launch Gemini VI-A on or befor...

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Gemini 6 harmonica

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Hint for G6

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Gemini 7 as seen by Gemini 6

Posted on June 18, 2014

The Gemini Program was conceived after it became evident to NASA officials that an intermediate step was required between Project Mercury and the Apollo Program. The major objectives assigned to Gemini were: 1-To subject two men and supporting equip...

G7 crew

GT on Wasp

Gemini 7 spacecraft on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

Recovery of G7

Hellicopter over G6

GT7 on Wasp

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Posted on July 24, 2014

On September 20th 1965, NASA named the crew for Gemini VIII. The command pilot selected was Neil Armstrong, a civilian test pilot with much experience in the X-15 rocket research aircraft program. David Scott was selected as pilot.  Scott was the fir...

Niel and David

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gemini8 at air and space museum Wapkoneta ohio

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Gemini 8 water egress test

F9F-2_Panthers_VF-51_over_Korea_1951 with Armstrong piloting

David Scott

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Posted on July 30, 2014

This was the most complex mission attempted to date. The primary mission objectives were to perform rendezvous and four docking tests with the Gemini Agena Target Vehicle (GATV) and to execute an ExtraVehicular Activity (EVA)…

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Agena view from G8

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Posted on August 7, 2014

Armstrong eased Gemini VIII toward the target at a barely perceptible speed of 8 centimeters per second. Then Armstrong gleefully reported, “Flight, we are docked!” For a brief moment, the flight controllers in Houston did not realize they had really...

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gemini8 at air and space museum Wapkoneta ohio

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Posted on August 28, 2014

After the untimely deaths of Elliot See and Charles Basset, NASA assigned the Gemini IX prime crew positions to Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan.  This was the first time in NASA’s manned space flight history that a backup crew had taken over a mission. ...

Gemini_9Acrew

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AtlasAgenaG9a

Posted on August 21, 2014

In October 1965, Elliot M. See and Charles A. Bassett II were selected to fly Gemini IX. Chief Astronaut Deke Slayton also told them that their backups would be Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan.  At that time Stafford was copilot for Gemini VI…

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Posted on September 4, 2014

As contractors worried about technical problems with the Atlas, Once again NASA, faced the necessity for a quick recovery plan when a target vehicle failed to reach orbit. You may recall the first time was with Gemini 6.  But this time Nasa had somet...

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tom Stafford in orbit

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Posted on September 11, 2014

We left off last week with Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan completing three rendezvous with the ATDA but, no docking because the shroud was still in place on the Docking Adapter. On June 5, 1966 at 5:30 a.m., nearly 45 hours and 30 minutes into the miss...

Gemini 9 splashes down at 9-00 A.M., June 6, 1966. The day of the EVA was also their last in space

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Posted on September 18, 2014

Deputy Administrator Seamans wanted a mission review board created to study: (1) Corrective measures for the Atlas-Agena failure (2) The guidance update problem that delayed the launch two days (3) The shroud incident (4) The suit environmental c...

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Gemini 9 astronauts Gene Cernan and Tom Stafford brief Gemini 10 astronauts John Young and Mike Collins. And….how about that nice ATDA model in full gator

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