Astronauts Conclude 8-Day Gemini Flight

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30842, 30 August 1965, Page 13

Astronauts Conclude 8-Day Gemini Flight

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

HOUSTON, (Texas), August 29.

The astronauts, Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad, climax man’s longest space flight today with a searing ride through the earth’s atmosphere and a splash-down in the Atlantic.

The Gemini V mission, almost abandoned after its first few hours, concludes after almost eight days of space age records, agonising crises, major successes, and a few failures.

Cooper and Conrad planned to land 276 miles south-west of Bermuda after 120 revolutions of the earth, only 65 minutes short of eight days. The recovery aircraft carrier Lake Champlain, which hoped to be within sight of Gemini when the spacecraft’s main parachute opens, steamed to the new predicted splash-down point overnight after tropical storm Betsy forced the mission to cut short by one revolution.

The mission, which had its agonising suspense on opening day, had a final “cliff, hanger” yesterday as flight controllers debated for hours whether to go for the planned 121 revolutions.

Late in the afternoon, Mr Gene Kranz, the head of the flight controllers decided that a splashdown after 121 revolutions would put the recovery zone too close to Betsy. New Positions He gave the order to cut 95 minutes off the mission and called for a splashdown 55 miles to the north-east of the original point, with the new

position at 29.42 deg north and 68.00 deg west. Predictions called for visibility of about 10 miles this morning, with partially cloudy skies. Winds were forecast at 12 knots and seas at two to three feet The astronauts, stiff after more than a week in their cramped spacecraft, began preparing for the critical reentry—the most dangerous part of the mission. Ate Meal Cooper and Conrad, both suffering from unexplained, stuffed-up noses, stowed their equipment and collected all the floating space garbage, cramming it into various holes around the spacecraft. They ate a meal, tried to get some sleep, and chatted with mission control from time to time.

Space Brakes

In the recovery zone, Navy frogmen and Air Force pararescue experts, ran through their already-memorised procedures for going to the aid of the Gemini pair when they hit the water. The re-entry would begin 40 seconds after 12.26 p.m. New Zealand time, Monday, when Cooper, the command pilot fires the four space brakes—the retro-rockets—one after another. As Gemini V headed into its last hours, almost everything but food, water and the

astronauts themselves was used up. Major items virtually exhausted were electrical power and manoeuvring fuel.

Less Tired Dr. Charles Berry, the astronauts’ doctor, told a news briefing yesterday that Cooper and Conrad were not as tired after almost eight days as James McDivitt and Edward White were after half that time aboard Gemini IV last June.

Mr Christopher Kraft, the flight director, said he felt that the spacecraft, the astronauts and the world-wide ground control network all performed well during the mission.