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McDivitt later said that the engine had come on abruptly, but with the tremendous mass, acceleration was very slow – it took the whole 5 seconds to add 11 meters per second to the speed.
Example of the CM’s docking probe being removed from the inside to allow access to the LM through the tunnel
Probe and drogue operations
Schweickart and McDivitt inside the LM
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As Dave Scott pulled in closer to the Lunar Module he noticed that the command module’s nose was out of line with the lander’s nose. Scott tried to use a service module thruster to turn left, but that jet was not operating. It turns out that someone had accidentally bumped a switch that turned off one set of Thrusters. The crew then flipped the correct switches, and the thruster started working, and at T+3 hours 2 minutes the command module probe nestled into the lunar Module drogue, where it was captured and held by the 12 latches. The first docking of the Lunar Module in space was achieved. As a side note, switch guards were installed on all future Apollo missions to prevent accidentally flipping a switch.
LM on S-VIB stage preparing to dock with the Command Module
Command Module docked with Lunar Module
S-IVB stage after the Lunar Module was removed
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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 something in the hangar, an alternate vehicle – the Augment Target Docking Adapter also known as the ATDA…
Angry Alligator
Stafford in Orbit
ATDA
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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. The capsule was renamed Gemini IX-A…
G9-A Patch
Agena Launch
Crew of G9-A, Tom Stafford & Gene Cerenan
