Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is an installation of the United States Air Force Space Command's 45th Space Wing. CCAFS is headquartered at the nearby Patrick Air Force Base, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida, CCAFS; the station is the primary launch head of America's Eastern Range with three launch pads active. Popularly known as "Cape Kennedy" from 1963 to 1973, as "Cape Canaveral" from 1949 to 1963 and from 1973 to the present, the facility is south-southeast of NASA's Kennedy Space Center on adjacent Merritt Island, with the two linked by bridges and causeways; the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip provides a 10,000-foot runway close to the launch complexes for military airlift aircraft delivering heavy and outsized payloads to the Cape. A number of American space exploration pioneers were launched from CCAFS, including the first U. S. Earth satellite in 1958, first U. S. astronaut, first U. S. astronaut in orbit, first two-man U. S. spacecraft, first U. S. unmanned lunar landing, first three-man U.
S. spacecraft. It was the launch site for all of the first spacecraft to fly past each of the planets in the Solar System, the first spacecraft to orbit Mars and roam its surface, the first American spacecraft to orbit and land on Venus, the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn, to orbit Mercury, the first spacecraft to leave the Solar System. Portions of the base have been designated a National Historic Landmark for their association with the early years of the American space program; the CCAFS area had been used by the United States government to test missiles since 1949, when President Harry S. Truman established the Joint Long Range Proving Ground at Cape Canaveral; the location was among the best in the continental United States for this purpose, as it allowed for launches out over the Atlantic Ocean, is closer to the equator than most other parts of the United States, allowing rockets to get a boost from the Earth's rotation. On June 1, 1948, the United States Navy transferred the former Banana River Naval Air Station to the United States Air Force, with the Air Force renaming the facility the Joint Long Range Proving Ground Base on June 10, 1949.
On October 1, 1949, the Joint Long Range Proving Ground Base was transferred from the Air Materiel Command to the Air Force Division of the Joint Long Range Proving Ground. On May 17, 1950, the base was renamed the Long Range Proving Ground Base, but three months was renamed Patrick Air Force Base, in honor of Army Maj. Gen. Mason Patrick. In 1951, the Air Force established the Air Force Missile Test Center. Early American sub-orbital rocket flights were achieved at Cape Canaveral in 1956; these flights occurred shortly after sub-orbital flights launched from White Sands Missile Range, such as the Viking 12 sounding rocket on February 4, 1955. Following the Soviet Union's successful Sputnik 1, the United States attempted its first launch of an artificial satellite from Cape Canaveral on December 6, 1957. However, the rocket carrying Vanguard TV3 exploded on the launch pad. NASA was founded in 1958, Air Force crews launched missiles for NASA from the Cape, known as Cape Canaveral Missile Annex.
Redstone, Pershing 1, Pershing 1a, Pershing II, Thor, Atlas and Minuteman missiles were all tested from the site, the Thor becoming the basis for the expendable launch vehicle Delta rocket, which launched Telstar 1 in July 1962. The row of Titan and Atlas launch pads along the coast came to be known as Missile Row in the 1960s. NASA's first manned spaceflight program was prepared for launch from Canaveral by U. S. Air Force crews. Mercury's objectives were to place a manned spacecraft in Earth orbit, investigate human performance and ability to function in space, safely recover the astronaut and spacecraft. Suborbital flights were launched by derivatives of the Army's Redstone missile from LC-5. Orbital flights were launched by derivatives of the Air Force's larger Atlas D missile from LC-14; the first American in orbit was John Glenn on February 20, 1962. Three more orbital flights followed through May 1963. Flight control for all Mercury missions was provided at the Mercury Control Center located at Canaveral near LC-14.
On November 29, 1963, following the death of President John F. Kennedy, his successor Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order 11129 renaming both NASA's Merrit Island Launch Operations Center and "the facilities of Station No. 1 of the Atlantic Missile Range" as the "John F. Kennedy Space Center", he had convinced Gov. C. Farris Bryant to change the name of Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy; this resulted in some confusion in public perception. NASA Administrator James E. Webb clarified this by issuing a directive stating the Kennedy Space Center name applied only to Merrit Island, while the Air Force issued a general order renaming the Air Force Station launch site Cape Kennedy Air Force Station; this name was used through the Gemini and early Apollo programs. However, the geographical name change proved to be unpopular, owing to the historical longevity of Cape Canaveral. In 1973, both the Air Force Base and the geographical Cape names were reverted to Canaveral after the Florida legislature passed a bill changing the name back, signed into law by Florida governor Reubin Askew.
The two-man
Michael Collins (astronaut)
Michael Collins is an American former astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew into space twice, his first spaceflight was on Gemini 10, in which he and Command Pilot John Young performed orbital rendezvous with two different spacecraft and undertook two extravehicular activities. His second spaceflight was as the Command Module Pilot for Apollo 11. While he stayed in orbit around the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left in the Apollo Lunar Module to make the first crewed landing on its surface, he is one of 24 people to have flown to the Moon. Collins was the seventeenth American in space, the fourth person to perform a spacewalk, the first person to have performed more than one spacewalk. Prior to becoming an astronaut, he graduated from the United States Military Academy, from there he joined the United States Air Force and flew F-86 Sabre fighters at Chambley-Bussieres Air Base, he was accepted into the U. S. Air Force Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in 1960.
He unsuccessfully was accepted for the third. After retiring from NASA in 1970, Collins took a job in the Department of State as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. A year he became the director of the National Air and Space Museum and held this position until 1978, when he stepped down to become undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1980, he took a job as vice president of LTV Aerospace. Collins resigned in 1985 to start his own consulting firm. Collins was born on October 1930, in Rome, Italy, he was the second son of James Lawton Collins, a career U. S. Army officer, the U. S. military attaché there from 1928 to 1932, Virginia née Stewart. Collins had an older brother, James Lawton Collins Jr. and two older sisters and Agnes. For the first 17 years of his life, Collins lived in many places as the Army posted his father to different locations: Rome, he took his first plane ride in Puerto Rico aboard a Grumman Widgeon. He wanted to fly again. Collins studied for two years in the Academia del Perpetuo Socorro in Puerto Rico.
After the United States entered World War II, the family moved to Washington, D. C. where Collins attended St. Albans School and graduated in 1948, his mother wanted him to enter into the diplomatic service, but he decided to follow his father, two uncles and cousin into the armed services. He received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, from which his father and his older brother had graduated in 1907 and 1939 respectively, he graduated on June 3, 1952, with a Bachelor of Science degree, finishing 185th of 527 cadets in the class, which included future fellow astronaut Ed White. Collins' decision to join the United States Air Force was motivated by both the wonder of what the next 50 years might bring in aeronautics, to avoid accusations of nepotism had he joined the Army where his brother was a colonel, his father had reached the rank of major general and his uncle, General J. Lawton Collins, was the Chief of Staff of the United States Army; the Air Force Academy was in its initial construction phase, would not graduate its first class for several years.
In the interim, graduates of the Military Academy were eligible for Air Force commissions. Promotion was slower in the Air Force than in the Army, due to the large number of young officers, commissioned and promoted during World War II. Collins commenced basic flight training in the T-6 Texan at Columbus Air Force Base in Columbus, Mississippi, in August 1952 moved on to San Marcos Air Force Base in Texas to learn instrument and formation flying, to James Connally Air Force Base in Waco, for training in jet aircraft. Flying came to him, unlike many of his colleagues, he had little fear of failure, he was awarded his wings on completion of the course at Waco, in September 1953, he was chosen for advanced day-fighter training at Nellis Air Force Base, flying F-86 Sabres. The training was dangerous; this was followed by an assignment in January 1954 to the 21st Fighter-Bomber Wing at George Air Force Base, where he learned ground attack and nuclear weapons delivery techniques in the F-86. He moved with the 21st when it was relocated to Chaumont-Semoutiers Air Base, France, in December 1954.
He won first prize in a 1956 gunnery competition. During a NATO exercise that summer, he was forced to eject from an F-86 after a fire started aft of the cockpit. Collins met his future wife, Patricia Mary Finnegan from Boston, Massachusetts, in an officers' mess. A graduate of Emmanuel College, where she majored in English, she was a social worker, dealing with single mothers. To see more of the world, she was working for the Air Force service club. After getting engaged, they had to overcome a difference in religion. Collins was nominally Episcopalian. After seeking permission to marry from Finnegan's father, delaying their wedding when Collins was redeployed to West Germany during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, they married in the summer of 1957, they had a daughter, actress Kate Collins, in 1959, a second daughter, Ann, in 1961 and a son, Michael, in 1963. After Collins returned to the United States in lat
Low Earth orbit
A Low Earth Orbit is an Earth-centered orbit with an altitude of 2,000 km or less, or with at least 11.25 periods per day and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the manmade objects in space are in LEO. A histogram of the mean motion of the cataloged objects shows that the number of objects drops beyond 11.25. There is a large variety of other sources; the altitude of an object in an elliptic orbit can vary along the orbit. For circular orbits, the altitude above ground can vary by as much as 30 km due to the oblateness of Earth's spheroid figure and local topography. While definitions in terms of altitude are inherently ambiguous, most of them fall within the range specified by an orbit period of 128 minutes because, according to Kepler's third law, this corresponds to a semi-major axis of 8,413 km. For circular orbits, this in turn corresponds to an altitude of 2,042 km above the mean radius of Earth, consistent with some of the upper limits in the LEO definitions in terms of altitude; the LEO region is defined by some sources as the region in space.
Some elliptical orbits may pass through the LEO region near their lowest altitude but are not in an LEO Orbit because their highest altitude exceeds 2,000 km. Sub-orbital objects can reach the LEO region but are not in an LEO orbit because they re-enter the atmosphere; the distinction between LEO orbits and the LEO region is important for analysis of possible collisions between objects which may not themselves be in LEO but could collide with satellites or debris in LEO orbits. The International Space Station conducts operations in LEO. All crewed space stations to date, as well as the majority of satellites, have been in LEO; the altitude record for human spaceflights in LEO was Gemini 11 with an apogee of 1,374.1 km. Apollo 8 was the first mission to carry humans beyond LEO on December 21–27, 1968; the Apollo program continued during the four-year period spanning 1968 through 1972 with 24 astronauts who flew lunar flights but since there have been no human spaceflights beyond LEO. The mean orbital velocity needed to maintain a stable low Earth orbit is about 7.8 km/s, but reduces with increased orbital altitude.
Calculated for circular orbit of 200 km it is 7.79 km/s and for 1500 km it is 7.12 km/s. The delta-v needed to achieve low Earth orbit starts around 9.4 km/s. Atmospheric and gravity drag associated with launch adds 1.3–1.8 km/s to the launch vehicle delta-v required to reach normal LEO orbital velocity of around 7.8 km/s. The pull of gravity in LEO is only less than on the earth's surface; this is. However, an object in orbit is, in free fall, since there is no force holding it up; as a result objects in orbit, including people, experience a sense of weightlessness though they are not without weight. Objects in LEO encounter atmospheric drag from gases in the thermosphere or exosphere, depending on orbit height. Due to atmospheric drag, satellites do not orbit below 300 km. Objects in LEO orbit Earth between the denser part of the atmosphere and below the inner Van Allen radiation belt. Equatorial low Earth orbits are a subset of LEO; these orbits, with low inclination to the Equator, allow rapid revisit times and have the lowest delta-v requirement of any orbit.
Orbits with a high inclination angle to the equator are called polar orbits. Higher orbits include medium Earth orbit, sometimes called intermediate circular orbit, further above, geostationary orbit. Orbits higher than low orbit can lead to early failure of electronic components due to intense radiation and charge accumulation. In 2017, a very-low LEO orbit began to be seen in regulatory filings; this orbit, referred to as "VLEO", requires the use of novel technologies for orbit raising because they operate in orbits that would ordinarily decay too soon to be economically useful. A low Earth orbit requires the lowest amount of energy for satellite placement, it provides low communication latency. Satellites and space stations in LEO are more accessible for servicing. Since it requires less energy to place a satellite into a LEO, a satellite there needs less powerful amplifiers for successful transmission, LEO is used for many communication applications, such as the Iridium phone system; some communication satellites use much higher geostationary orbits, move at the same angular velocity as the Earth as to appear stationary above one location on the planet.
Satellites in LEO have a small momentary field of view, only able to observe and communicate with a fraction of the Earth at a time, meaning a network of satellites is required to in order to provide continuous coverage. Satellites in lower regions of LEO suffer from fast orbital decay, requiring either periodic reboosting to maintain a stable orbit, or launching replacement satellites when old ones re-enter. Earth observation satellites and spy satellites use LEO as they are able to see the surface of the Earth by being close to it, they are able to traverse the surface of the Earth. A majority of artificial satellites are placed in LEO, making one complete revolution around the Earth in about 90 minutes; the International Space Station is in a LEO about 330 km to 420 km above Earth's surfac
USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7)
USS Guadalcanal, the third Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship, was launched by the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard 16 March 1963, sponsored by Mrs. David Shoup, wife of General Shoup, the former Commandant of the Marine Corps, it was the second ship in the Navy to bear the name. Upon completion of sea trials and outfitting, Guadalcanal departed Philadelphia to join the Amphibious Forces, U. S. Atlantic Fleet. One of a new class of ships designed from the keel up to embark and land assault marines by means of helicopters, she lent new strength and flexibility to amphibious operations. After departing Norfolk 23 October 1963 for six weeks' shakedown training at Guantanamo Bay, Guadalcanal steamed to Onslow Beach, North Carolina, 6 December for practice amphibious landings, she carried on training and readiness operations with the Atlantic Fleet, based in Norfolk until departing for Panama 11 February 1964. Following 2 months on station as flagship for Commander PhibRon 12 with the 12 Marine Expeditionary Unit embarked and ready to land anywhere needed.
Guadalcanal entered Philadelphia Naval Shipyard 26 May, but was deployed again 7 October as a unit of Operation "Steel Pike 1", a NATO landing exercise on the beaches of southern Spain. Career highlights include 21 July 1966, when she recovered the Gemini X astronauts and their spacecraft after they landed in the Atlantic east of Cape Kennedy, 13 March 1969, when she recovered Apollo 9 off the Bahamas. In October 1985 the ship logged its 100,000th aircraft landing. In 1987 the Guadalcanal was leading minesweeping operations in the Persian Gulf when it encountered the Iran Ajr laying mines in the shipping lanes. Helicopters from the Guadalcanal attacked the ship; the Guadalcanal provided the Marines for the first wave of Operation Provide Comfort, the Kurdish relief operations in Northern Iraq following the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Guadalcanal was decommissioned in 1994, stored as part of the James River Reserve Fleet until she was used as a target and sunk in the Virginia Capes area on 19 May 2005.
On 1 November 1966, a UH-2B Seasprite helicopter assigned to the ship crashed as it was taking off from the flight deck. The Guadalcanal was in the Naval Shipyard in VA to start a major overhaul at the time. Three Navy men and one civilian shipyard worker were killed and 12 others were hospitalized. Nine more sailors and civilians were treated for minor injuries. On 9 May 1968 she floated adrift off North Carolina due to a burned out bearing in the propulsion system. On 27 January 1976 she went aground in Augusta Bay, Sicily on a peak of coral which pushed in areas on either side of the bow, but did not crack or hole the ship. Three days with cargo, personnel and fuel off-loaded to assist the effort, the ship was refloated. On 17 September 1981 near Sardinia, Italy, a USMC CH-53C helicopter crashed while attempting to land aboard the ship during training exercises killing all five crewmen. On 24 September 1981 the Guadalcanal and the USNS Waccamaw, collided during underway replenishment south of Sardinia, causing minor damage but no injuries.
On 25 May 1993 the Guadalcanal and the USS Monongahela, collided during underway replenishment off of Cape Hatteras, NC when Guadalcanal's main gyrocompass failed. Five crew caused $1.635 M in damage to the two ships. During service Guadalcanal received the Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Navy Unit Commendation, Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, Navy Battle "E" Ribbon, Navy Expeditionary Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Southwest Asia Service Medal and Humanitarian Service Medal; this article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. NASA was established in 1958; the new agency was to have a distinctly civilian orientation, encouraging peaceful applications in space science. Since its establishment, most US space exploration efforts have been led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, the Space Shuttle. NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the Space Launch System and Commercial Crew vehicles; the agency is responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. NASA science is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing System. From 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1.
In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch an artificial satellite for the International Geophysical Year. An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard. After the Soviet launch of the world's first artificial satellite on October 4, 1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts; the US Congress, alarmed by the perceived threat to national security and technological leadership, urged immediate and swift action. On January 12, 1958, NACA organized a "Special Committee on Space Technology", headed by Guyford Stever. On January 14, 1958, NACA Director Hugh Dryden published "A National Research Program for Space Technology" stating: It is of great urgency and importance to our country both from consideration of our prestige as a nation as well as military necessity that this challenge be met by an energetic program of research and development for the conquest of space... It is accordingly proposed that the scientific research be the responsibility of a national civilian agency...
NACA is capable, by rapid extension and expansion of its effort, of providing leadership in space technology. While this new federal agency would conduct all non-military space activity, the Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to develop space technology for military application. On July 29, 1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, establishing NASA; when it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA absorbed the 43-year-old NACA intact. A NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA. A significant contributor to NASA's entry into the Space Race with the Soviet Union was the technology from the German rocket program led by Wernher von Braun, now working for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which in turn incorporated the technology of American scientist Robert Goddard's earlier works. Earlier research efforts within the US Air Force and many of ARPA's early space programs were transferred to NASA.
In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a contractor facility operated by the California Institute of Technology. The agency's leader, NASA's administrator, is nominated by the President of the United States subject to approval of the US Senate, reports to him or her and serves as senior space science advisor. Though space exploration is ostensibly non-partisan, the appointee is associated with the President's political party, a new administrator is chosen when the Presidency changes parties; the only exceptions to this have been: Democrat Thomas O. Paine, acting administrator under Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson, stayed on while Republican Richard Nixon tried but failed to get one of his own choices to accept the job. Paine was confirmed by the Senate in March 1969 and served through September 1970. Republican James C. Fletcher, appointed by Nixon and confirmed in April 1971, stayed through May 1977 into the term of Democrat Jimmy Carter. Daniel Goldin was appointed by Republican George H. W. Bush and stayed through the entire administration of Democrat Bill Clinton.
Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr. associate administrator under Democrat Barack Obama, was kept on as acting administrator by Republican Donald Trump until Trump's own choice Jim Bridenstine, was confirmed in April 2018. Though the agency is independent, the survival or discontinuation of projects can depend directly on the will of the President; the first administrator was Dr. T. Keith Glennan appointed by Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower. During his term he brought together the disparate projects in American space development research; the second administrator, James E. Webb, appointed by President John F. Kennedy, was a Democrat who first publicly served under President Harry S. Truman. In order to implement the Apollo program to achieve Kennedy's Moon la
Titan II GLV
The Titan II GLV or Gemini-Titan II was an American expendable launch system derived from the Titan II missile, used to launch twelve Gemini missions for NASA between 1964 and 1966. Two unmanned launches followed by ten manned ones were conducted from Launch Complex 19 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, starting with Gemini 1 on April 8, 1964; the Titan II was a two-stage liquid-fuel rocket, using a hypergolic propellant combination of Aerozine 50 fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer. The first stage was powered by an LR87 engine, the second stage was propelled by an LR-91 engine. In addition to greater payload capability, the Titan II promised greater reliability than the Atlas LV-3B, selected for Project Mercury, because Titan's hypergolic-fueled engines contained far fewer components. Several modifications were made to the Titan missile to man-rate it for Project Gemini: A "Gemini Malfunction Detection System" was installed to inform the crew of the rocket's status, improve response in an emergency.
Redundant systems were installed to reduce the chances of launch failures. The inertial guidance system was replaced by a lighter-weight ground-radio guidance system The avionics truss in the second stage was modified To help guard against the possibility of a guidance malfunction causing the engine nozzles to gimbal hard right or left, an extra backup guidance system was added; the second stage propellant tanks were lengthened for longer burn time and unnecessary vernier engines and retrorockets were removed. Because the second stage engine had had issues with combustion instability, it was equipped with baffled injectors; the first stage was loaded with 13,000 pounds more propellant than the Titan ICBM although the storage tank size remained unchanged. Modifications were made to the tracking and hydraulics systems in the interest of improved reliability; the propellants were chilled to improve vehicle performance. This allowed for more mass to be accommodated. First stage engine thrust was reduced to cut down on vibration and G loads.
First stage engine burn would go until propellant depletion unlike Titan ICBMs which were designed to cut off when propellant flow/pressure and engine thrust started dropping as the tanks emptied. This was to prevent the possibility of a malfunctioning pressure sensor triggering an abort condition. Running until depletion would boost the Titan's capacity for payload. Modifications were overseen by the Air Force Systems Command; the Aerojet company, the manufacturer of the Titan's engines, had released a revised model during mid-1963 due to deficiencies in the original design, to attempt to improve manufacturing procedures. Film footage of Gemini 10's launch revealed that the first stage oxidizer tank ruptured shortly after staging and released a cloud of N2O4; as first stage telemetry had been terminated at staging, there was no data other than photographic/visual evidence to go by, however the conclusion was that either loose debris struck the oxidizer tank dome or else exhaust from the second stage engine had burned through it.
Gemini 12's launch vehicle experienced a tank rupture after staging and film review of Titan II ICBM launches found several occurrences of this phenomenon. Since this did not appear to pose any safety risks to the astronauts, NASA decided that it was not a concern. During Titan II ICBM development, it had been found that the first stage turbopump gearbox was prone to total failure caused by resonant vibration in the idler gear; this problem had not occurred on actual launches, but only static firing tests. This was considered to be a critical item to fix. Aerojet developed a redesigned gearbox, all of Gemini launch vehicles except for the unmanned Gemini 1 used it. There was a serious problem with the turbopump bearings which led to more design changes, however the odds of failing on a Gemini launch were slim to nil since GLV boosters used specially selected and tested bearings, in addition the turbopumps would be "hot fired" as part of prelaunch checks. Combustion instability in the second stage engine was a concern although that too had only been witnessed in static firing runs.
A new injector with improved baffling was developed for the engine and flight-tested on a Titan IIIC launch. After a Titan II propellant feed line was found to have some damage during factory inspections, NASA put out the requirement that all GLV propellant lines had to be X-rayed in order to prevent a disastrous fuel leak during launch. X-ray tests found several more damaged propellant lines, most due to careless handling; the most significant issue in man-rating the Titan II was resolving problems with resonant vibration known as "pogo" that could produce g-forces sufficient to incapacitate astronauts, but the Air Force were not interested in helping NASA with a problem that did not affect the ICBM program and could delay it, or require major modifications to the design. However, Martin-Marietta argued that the pogo problem could be fixed easily, the Air Force began to develop more of an interest in man-rating the Titan II due to the proposed Manned Orbiting Laboratory program; the primary changes made to resolve pogo were adding oxidizer standpipes, increasing the pressure in the propellant tanks, adding a mechanical accumulator to the fuel suction side.
Another nuisance problem that occurred during the Gemini program was code-named "Green Man" and involved momentary pitch oscillations of the Titan second stage following engine cut
Gemini 9A
Gemini 9A was a 1966 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the seventh manned Gemini flight, the 13th manned American flight and the 23rd spaceflight of all time; the original crew for Gemini 9, command pilot Elliot See and pilot Charles Bassett, were killed in a crash on February 28, 1966 while flying a T-38 jet trainer to the McDonnell Aircraft plant in St. Louis, Missouri to inspect their spacecraft, their deaths promoted Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene Cernan, to the prime crew; the mission was renamed Gemini 9A after the original May 17 launch was scrubbed when the mission's Agena Target Vehicle was destroyed after a launch failure. The mission was flown June 3 -- 1966, after launch of the backup Augmented Target Docking Adaptor. Stafford and Cernan rendezvoused with the ATDA, but were unable to dock with it because the nose fairing failed to eject from the docking target due to a launch preparation error. Cernan performed a two-hour extravehicular activity, during which it was planned for him to demonstrate free flight in a self-contained rocket pack, the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit.
He was unable to accomplish this due to stress and overheating. On February 28, 1966, See and Bassett were flying from Texas to inspect the Gemini 9 spacecraft at the McDonnell Aircraft plant in St. Louis, Missouri; the conditions at Lambert Field were poor and, as a consequence, in attempting a visual approach and landing, See hit one of the assembly buildings of the factory and caused the aircraft to crash, killing himself and Bassett instantly. As a consequence, the backup crew was promoted to prime crew, the first time this had occurred since the flight of Mercury-Atlas 7 in 1962; the promotion of Stafford and Cernan from backup to prime crew meant that a new backup crew was required. Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin were the backup crew for Gemini 10; this is significant as the standard crew rotation meant that a spot on the backup crew of Gemini 10 would have placed Buzz Aldrin on the prime crew of the non-existent mission after Gemini 12. Being moved up to the backup crew of Gemini 9 meant that Aldrin flew as part of the prime crew on Gemini 12, which played a major part in his selection for the Apollo 8 backup and Apollo 11 prime crews making him the second man on the Moon.
Mass: 3,750 kilograms Perigee: 158.8 kilometers at launch Apogee: 266.9 kilometers at launch Inclination: 28.91° Period: 88.78 min June 3, 1966 – 17:45 – 18:00 UTC Cernan Start: June 5, 1966, 15:02:00 UTC End: June 5, 1966, 17:09:00 UTC Duration: 2 hours and 7 minutes The first mission objective was to dock with an Agena Target Vehicle, as had first been achieved on the Gemini 8 mission. Accomplishment was not possible because of a launch preparation error on the target vehicle. A second objective was a planned extravehicular activity, or "space walk", by the right-hand seat Pilot; the plan was for him to move to the rear of the spacecraft and strap himself into the Air Force's Astronaut Maneuvering Unit, a'rocket pack' which would allow the pilot controlled flight, independent of the capsule's life support system. Use of the AMU was not achieved due to Cernan experiencing high cardiac stress and fatigue during EVA. A third objective was to carry out seven scientific experiments, including a medical experiment which measured the astronauts' reactions to stress by measuring the intake and output of fluids before and after the flight.
Gemini 9's Agena Target Vehicle was launched on May 1966 on an Atlas launch vehicle. The Atlas malfunctioned in flight and the ATV failed to reach orbit; this forced the cancellation of the Gemini 9 launch scheduled for that morning. The Augmented Target Docking Adapter had been designed for use as a contingency for the ATV, which had failed during the original Gemini 6 launch. Built by Gemini spacecraft manufacturer McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, the ATDA replaced the Agena rocket with the reentry control section of a Gemini, it was built using tested equipment, launched on June 1, 1966 into a 298-kilometer orbit using the Atlas SLV-3 rocket. Because the ATDA had no propulsion system of its own, the launch necessitated an extended Atlas sustainer burn—while SECO would take place at T+300 seconds, it was extended to T+348 seconds. A sustainer burn this long had never been attempted in 300 Atlas launches to date—a double-sized lubricant oil tank was used to ensure enough oil for turbopump operation.
The experiment worked and sustainer performance during the extended burn phase was uneventful. The vernier solo phase lasted ATDA separation occurred at T +383 seconds. After launch, telemetry indicated. Replanning the mission to accommodate the May 17 ATV failure forced the redesignation of the Gemini mission as Gemini 9A, the same as had happened to the original Gemini 6 mission on October 25, 1965; the first launch attempt was scheduled to occur shortly after the ATDA launch. But at T-3 minutes, the ground computers lost contact with the Gemini computers for an unknown reason, the 40 second launch window opened and closed without launch; this earned Tom Stafford the title of "Mayor of Pad 19". The second launch attempt on June 3 went with the spacecraft entering into orbit. With this launch, Stafford could say that he had been strapped into a spacecraft six times for only 2 launches. Launch vehicle performance was close to nominal. Two small roll transients were evident at
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
