Spacecraft Specifications Length in orbit : 5. A heat shield protected the Gemini spacecraft against the enormous heat generated by reentry into the atmosphere at more than 27, kilometers 17, miles per hour. Like those of other early American and Soviet manned spacecraft, Gemini's heat shield derived from ballistic-missile warhead technology. The dish-shaped shield created a shock wave in the atmosphere that held off most of the heat.
The rest was dissipated by ablation—charring and evaporation—of the heat shield's surface. Ablative shields were not reusable. Used in the Gemini Program to boost the two-man Gemini spacecraft into Earth orbit. Ten manned missions were flown. Launch Vehicle Specifications Height with spacecraft : 33 meters feet Thrust at lift off: , kilograms , pounds.
American astronaut Edward H. White II was the pilot for the Gemini-Titan 4 space flight. He floated in zero gravity during the third revolution of the Gemini 4 spacecraft. White is attached to the spacecraft by a ft.
The visor of his helmet is gold plated to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun. Lovell Jr. Their primary mission was to show that humans could live in weightlessness for 14 days, a space endurance record that would stand until Their spacecraft also served as the target vehicle for Gemini 6, piloted by Walter M. Schirra Jr. Stafford, who carried out the world's first space rendezvous. These two achievements were critical steps on the road to the Moon. For Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, the flight was an endurance test.
The cabin was very cramped—the size of the front half of a Volkswagen Beetle—and the two astronauts were the subject of numerous medical experiments. Gemini 7's primary mission was to demonstrate that astronauts could live in weightlessness without significant ill effects for 14 days, the longest duration anticipated for an Apollo lunar landing mission.
Gemini 7 Astronauts Borman and Lovell later formed two-thirds of the Apollo 8 crew, the first to circle the Moon. Lovell also commanded Gemini 12 and the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar landing mission.
Gemini 6 was actually launched after Gemini 7. It was supposed to take off on October 25, but the flight was cancelled after the unmanned rendezvous and docking target vehicle blew up.
The mission was quickly changed to a rendezvous with Gemini 7. Three days before Gemini 6's successful launch on December 15, , a heart-stopping shutdown of the Titan II launch vehicle's engines occurred during the first lift-off attempt. Schirra and Stafford did not eject only because of their coolness under extreme pressure.
It was the first time in history that two vehicles had maneuvered to meet in space. This photograph of the Gemini 7 spacecraft was taken from the hatch window of the Gemini 6 spacecraft during rendezvous and station-keeping maneuvers on December 15, The spacecraft were approximately nine feet apart, at an altitude of miles.
Michael Collins carried these checklists during the Gemini 10 mission from July , The Systems Notebook had information about the Gemini spacecraft and mission protocol. The data cards were used as a checklist of procedures during the extravehicular activity EVA in Earth orbit. Procedures for experiments, as well as the results, were kept in the Experiment Log Book.
Models of the early spacecraft programs that first put Americans in space, the one-man Mercury capsule front and its successor, the two-man Gemini capsule. NASA introduced the Project Mercury astronauts to the world on April 9, , only six months after the agency was established. Scott Carpenter, back row Alan B. Shepard Jr. Alan Shepard used this diagram to familiarize himself with the controls. The capsule landed in the ocean after the flight, and was recovered by a U.
Should we try to perfect artificial gravity for our Mars vehicles, or invest in physiological countermeasures so that humans can thrive in zero-g for two or three years? Bush will come to pass. The economic implications alone of making use of a perfect vacuum, of mixing substances at a molecular level in microgravity, of achieving a better understanding of the human body, and of the promise of using the abundant resources out there in space will cause us, as a nation, to embark on a series of greater, more complicated efforts in space exploration.
I also believe that we as stewards of the nation's space exploration program can have some positive influence on the way in which that future unfolds. I believe the realities of the present day suggest five things we in the space program can do to help bring about the capabilities that are now on the drawing boards of NASA.
Our first task must be to tell the story of spaceflight better. We have to help the taxpayers understand what it is they are investing in, and why. We have to share our vision for the future. The second thing we have to do is to help promote a consensus and a constituency for spaceflight and for exploration.
A third goal must be to move ahead with Space Station Freedom in this decade. We have to cut through the politics and the indecision and get on with it. An orbiting research laboratory is essential to our future in space. Right now, we are limited in what we can do out there on the space frontier by two things: the human body and the space environment itself.
Spaceflight has a pronounced effect on the body. It affects space travelers at the cellular level, and we see changes in the heart, the lungs, the kidneys, the blood vessels, the hormone-secreting glands, and the bones. Muscles lose protein, bones lose calcium, and metabolic processes such as the production of hormones, red blood cells, and white blood cells may be altered. We cannot prudently commit to the challenges ahead until we better understand how to keep people healthy and productive out there.
We also need to learn more about space basics. Even after 30 years, we still have fundamental questions about such prosaic things as paints, coatings, metals, wiring, spacecraft design, and a whole host of other considerations.
The shuttle, versatile as it is, can only do so much to help us in the learning process because its "stay time" in space is limited. For these. The fourth goal is to reduce the cost of flying the shuttle. These are difficult financial times, and we have to seek greater efficiencies in our spaceflight operations. To that end, NASA has embarked on a five-year program to reduce the shuttle's operating costs by 15 percent.
We intend to do this while also preserving our safety margins, whatever the cost. At the same time, there is a payback from flying reusable vehicles, and we must learn to take better advantage of it.
One of the main values of the shuttle is its reusability. It is that quality which has helped make the shuttle so reliable. The more we fly the orbiter fleet, the more we learn and the more understanding we have of how each system performs in a given circumstance.
As we get smarter, I believe we can safely take advantage of these insights and improve the overall efficiency and operation of the system.
Finally, we must make a firm commitment within NASA to hold the line on cost growth of new programs. This is difficult to do, especially within government programs, because the uncertainties of the year-to-year congressional budget process expose new programs to a series of fits and starts.
Some programs are turned off and on like a light switch for years before they finally achieve any sort of stable funding. By the same token, NASA must develop a better track record of meeting cost commitments if we are to enjoy congressional support in the future as these more costly and more ambitious projects are being debated.
This is one area where we have to do better. And we will do better. The future of manned spaceflight, while promising, faces many challenges. We see various technical barriers on the horizon, but that is the rule, rather than the exception, in the business of aerospace. In time, we will solve those problems and then move on to the next set of challenges.
In , when Al Flax signed his affidavit of appointment to a subcommittee of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, supersonic flight was still a rarity, wind tunnels were still unable to emulate flight in that regime, and the computational capabilities of the time were, by today's standards, almost prehistoric. It was the year that Bell Telephone gave transistors their first commercial application in a new long-distance, direct-dial telephone service; the year that Chrysler first installed power steering in 10, Crown Imperial sedans; the year that CBS began broadcasting in color; and the same year that a new coaxial cable carried the first transcontinental television broadcast.
Today, we are accustomed to live transmissions from Neptune, delayed only by the four-hour, one-way light time to Earth. Al Flax, and most of the rest of us here today, have been fortunate to live in a time when we see old barriers falling.
We have witnessed firsthand the exciting changes that technological progress has brought. As we pause to mark the contribution Al Flax has made to aerospace, and to consider the future of this industry, we can be certain only that change will be our constant companion, and that the results of our efforts will never cease to amaze us.
Few technological advances have affected the lives and dreams of individuals and the operations of companies and governments as much as the continuing development of flight. From space exploration to package transport, from military transport to passenger helicopter use, from passenger jumbo jets to tilt-rotor commuter planes, the future of flying is still rapidly developing. The essays in this volume survey the state of progress along several fronts of this constantly evolving frontier.
Five eminent authorities assess prospects for the future of rotary-wing aircraft, large passenger aircraft, commercial aviation, manned spaceflight, and defense aerospace in the post-Cold War era. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website. Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.
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Get This Book. Visit NAP. Looking for other ways to read this? No thanks. The Future of Aerospace. The Future of Manned Spaceflight. Page 16 Share Cite. Page 17 Share Cite. Page 18 Share Cite. Page 19 Share Cite. Page 20 Share Cite. Page 21 Share Cite. Page 22 Share Cite. Page 23 Share Cite. The small craft were designed to withstand the tremendous temperatures of reentering the planet's atmosphere and also survive a dramatic splashdown in the ocean.
Just a few weeks after Shepard's flight, President John F. Kennedy announced his intent to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Yet Mercury had more to accomplish. NASA's Gemini program was designed to refine spacecraft so that they could perform rendezvous, docking, and other advanced maneuvers that would be necessary to land an astronaut on the moon and return to Earth. As the missions of this era grew longer, astronauts became more adept at living within their spacecraft and even venturing outside it.
Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov became the first person to exit an orbiting spacecraft in March The launch of the Apollo missions precipitated an American triumph in the space race and was a major first in space exploration. On July 20, , Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first people to reach the moon when they touched their lunar lander down in the Sea of Tranquility.
Before the Apollo project ended in , five other missions visited the moon. Later missions carried a lunar rover that could be driven across the satellite's surface and saw astronauts spend as long as three days on the moon.
The Apollo missions achieved tremendous successes, but they came with a terrible cost. All rights reserved. First Humans in Space Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space when he orbited the Earth in a Vostok spacecraft on April 12, Moon Landing The launch of the Apollo missions precipitated an American triumph in the space race and was a major first in space exploration. When the Apollo missions ended in , the first era of human space exploration closed.
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