11. Gemini 7 And Gemini 6A

11. Gemini 7 and Gemini 6A

(Combining these two, or else I wouldn’t be able to fit every manned flight into a 20 day countdown!)

Date: December 4-18, 1965 (Gemini 7: 13 days, 18 hours, 35 minutes, 1 second) and December 15-16, 1965 (Gemini 6A: 1 day, 1 hour, 51 minutes, 24 seconds)

Crew: Frank F. Borman II and James A. “Jim” Lovell, Jr. (Gemini 7) and Walter M. “Wally” Schirra, Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford

Mission Highlights: The original Gemini 6 flight was set to take place in October 1965, to rendezvous and dock with the unmanned Agena Target Vehicle (ATV). However, the ATV exploded shortly after launch on Oct. 25, leading to the cancellation of Gemini 6. The mission was altered to work with another Gemini flight flying later that year, and renamed Gemini 6A.

6A’s sister flight, Gemini 7, launched on December 4th, piloted by spaceflight rookies Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. The main objective of Gemini 7 was to complete a long-duration spaceflight, testing the effects of the longest spaceflight to date (two weeks) on the human body. Testing food rations, undergoing medical experiments, collecting bodily waste samples, and trying to get comfortable in the extremely tight quarters proved to be challenging at times.

Meanwhile on the ground, Gemini 6A suffered significant delays that pushed launch from December 12 to the 15th. Once reaching orbit, Gemini 6A and Gemini 7 commenced rendezvous. Over the next four hours, the two spacecraft came within a foot of each other. An earlier proposal had included a double-EVA in which Jim and Tom would switch spacecraft, but that plan was eventually rejected on several grounds. However, both crews were impressed with the navigational abilities of the Gemini spacecraft and precision of rendezvous.

The next morning, shortly before Gemini 6A’s reentry, Wally spotted an unidentified (and particularly festive) flying object “in a polar orbit” around the Earth… (which also led to the first musical performance broadcast from space)!

After Gemini 6A descended to Earth, recovered by the USS Wasp in the Atlantic, Jim and Frank were left with three days in space and quite a bit of boredom. Malfunctions frustrated the tired and cramped (and smelly) crew. At some point, one of the astronauts (Jimbo) lost his toothbrush, forcing them to share just one. The crew was very eager for reentry by December 18. When the crew was recovered by the USS Wasp nearly 14 days after launch, Jim and Frank announced their engagement to the frogmen!

Significance: Both the successful rendezvous and long-duration flight were significant accomplishments for the American space program, as both objectives were essential to a lunar mission. The stellar rendezvous allowed NASA to move forward with an attempted docking (we’ll see how that goes tomorrow…). Several lessons were learned by forcing two astronauts into a tin can together for two weeks, many of which helped to improve the experiences of future Gemini and Apollo crew members. And, of course, the lifelong friendship between two American heroes became even closer (er, maybe a little too close?)