Gemini 12
Gemini 12 was a 1966 manned spaceflight in NASA's Project Gemini. It was the 10th and final manned Gemini flight, the 18th manned American spaceflight, the 26th spaceflight of all time, including X-15 flights over 100 kilometers. Commanded by Gemini VII veteran James A. Lovell, the flight featured three periods of extravehicular activity by rookie Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, lasting a total of 5 hours and 30 minutes, it achieved the fifth rendezvous and fourth docking with an Agena target vehicle. Gemini XII marked a successful conclusion of the Gemini program, achieving the last of its goals by demonstrating that astronauts can work outside of spacecraft; this was instrumental in paving the way for the Apollo program to achieve its goal of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. Stuart A. Roosa Charles Conrad Jr. William A. Anders Mass: 3,762.1 kilograms Perigee: 160.8 kilometers Apogee: 270.6 kilometers Inclination: 28.87° Period: 88.87 min Docked: November 12, 1966 - 01:06:00 UTC Undocked: November 13, 1966 - 20:18:00 UTC Aldrin - EVA 1 - Start: November 12, 1966, 16:15:00 UTC End: November 12, 1966, 18:44:00 UTC Duration: 2 hours, 29 minutes Aldrin - EVA 2 Start: November 13, 1966, 15:34:00 UTC End: November 13, 1966, 17:40:00 UTC Duration: 2 hours, 06 minutes Aldrin - EVA 3 Start: November 14, 1966, 14:52:00 UTC End: November 14, 1966, 15:47:00 UTC Duration: 0 hours, 55 minutes Liftoff of the Atlas/Agena Target Vehicle occurred at 2:07:59 PM EST, of the Gemini/Titan spacecraft at 3:46:33 PM EST, on November 11.
All launch vehicle systems performed nominally during powered flight, but at staging there was a recurrence of the first stage oxidizer tank rupture first seen on Gemini 10's launch. On Gemini 12, the fuel tank appeared to have ruptured as a white cloud was seen emitting from the spent stage along with the orange nitrogen tetroxide. Another episode of "Green Man" occurred at SECO, referring to pitch gyrations caused by pressure buildup in the second stage protective skirt. At the completion of the previous Gemini flight, the program still had not demonstrated that an astronaut could work and efficiently outside the spacecraft. In preparation for Gemini XII new, improved restraints were added to the outside of the capsule, a new technique—underwater training—was introduced, which would become a staple of future space-walk simulation. Aldrin's two-hour, 20-minute tethered space-walk, during which he photographed star fields, retrieved a micrometeorite collector and did other chores, at last demonstrated the feasibility of extravehicular activity.
Two more stand-up EVAs went smoothly, as did the by-now routine rendezvous and docking with an Agena, done "manually" using the onboard computer and charts when a rendezvous radar failed. The climb to a higher orbit, was canceled because of a problem with the Agena booster. During orbital injection, the GATV engine experienced a drop in turbopump speed lasting about 2.5 seconds. After this, pump performance returned to normal. Telemetry data indicated erratic pump speeds. Ground controllers decided not to risk the planned orbital boost maneuver since the exact reason for the pump slowdown was unclear. Following Gemini 12's reentry and during the GATV's 63rd orbit, they attempted to fire the propulsion system, but a stuck fuel valve prevented engine start from occurring, it was suspected that a turbopump bearing failure caused the anomalous conditions during orbital injection, followed by heating and melting of pump components. The inability of ground controllers to start the engine during the 63rd orbit was due to melted or loose debris blocking the fuel valve and preventing its operation.
The telemetry data falsely reporting erratic pump speed was concluded to be debris being knocked around and affecting the data probes. Many documentaries afterward credit the spacewalk innovations, including the underwater training, to Aldrin himself. Gemini 12 was designed to perform rendezvous and docking with the Agena target vehicle, to conduct three extra-vehicular activity operations, to conduct a tethered stationkeeping exercise, to perform docked maneuvers using the Agena propulsion system to change orbit, demonstrate an automatic reentry; when Gemini 12 was being planned, one of the possibilities raised was the potential for the flight to be run in conjunction with the first Apollo mission, tentatively scheduled for the last quarter of 1966. By May 1966, delays in making Apollo ready for flight just by itself, the extra time needed to incorporate compatibility with the Gemini, made that impractical; this became moot when slippage in readiness of the Apollo spacecraft caused the last-quarter 1966 target date to be missed, the Apollo mission was rescheduled for February 21, 1967.
The 14 scientific experiments were frog egg growth under zero-g, synoptic terrain photography, synoptic weather photography, nuclear emulsions, airglow horizon photography, UV astronomical photography, dim sky photography. Two micrometeorite collection experiments, as well as three space phenomena photography experiments, were not completed; the capsule splashed down 4.8 kilometers from its target. The crew were taken aboard the aircraft carrier USS Wasp; the Gemini 12 mission was supported by the following U. S. Department of Defense resources. Postflight medical examination disclosed no unusual conditions in either astronaut. Both were exhausted and dehydrated due to problems with the spacecraft's water supply system forci
Space rendezvous
A space rendezvous is an orbital maneuver during which two spacecraft, one of, a space station, arrive at the same orbit and approach to a close distance. Rendezvous requires a precise match of the orbital velocities and position vectors of the two spacecraft, allowing them to remain at a constant distance through orbital station-keeping. Rendezvous may or may not be followed by docking or berthing, procedures which bring the spacecraft into physical contact and create a link between them; the same rendezvous technique can be used for spacecraft "landing" on natural objects with a weak gravitational field, e.g. landing on one of the Martian moons would require the same matching of orbital velocities, followed by a "descent" that shares some similarities with docking. In its first human spaceflight program Vostok, the Soviet Union launched pairs of spacecraft from the same launch pad, one or two days apart. In each case, the launch vehicles' guidance systems inserted the two craft into nearly identical orbits.
The initial separation distances were in the range of 5 to 6.5 kilometers, diverged to thousands of kilometers over the course of the missions. In 1963 Buzz Aldrin submitted his doctoral thesis titled, Line-Of-Sight Guidance Techniques For Manned Orbital Rendezvous; as a NASA astronaut, Aldrin worked to "translate complex orbital mechanics into simple flight plans for my colleagues." The first attempt at rendezvous was made on June 3, 1965, when US astronaut Jim McDivitt tried to maneuver his Gemini 4 craft to meet its spent Titan II launch vehicle's upper stage. McDivitt was unable to get close enough to achieve station-keeping, due to depth-perception problems, stage propellant venting which kept moving it around. However, the Gemini 4 attempts at rendezvous were unsuccessful because NASA engineers had yet to learn the orbital mechanics involved in the process. Pointing the active vehicle's nose at the target and thrusting was unsuccessful. If the target is ahead in the orbit and the tracking vehicle increases speed, its altitude increases moving it away from the target.
The higher altitude increases orbital period due to Kepler's third law, putting the tracker not only above, but behind the target. The proper technique requires changing the tracking vehicle's orbit to allow the rendezvous target to either catch up or be caught up with, at the correct moment changing to the same orbit as the target with no relative motion between the vehicles; as GPO engineer André Meyer remarked, "There is a good explanation for what went wrong with rendezvous." The crew, like everyone else at MSC, "just didn't understand or reason out the orbital mechanics involved. As a result, we all got a whole lot smarter and perfected rendezvous maneuvers, which Apollo now uses." Rendezvous was first accomplished by US astronaut Wally Schirra on December 15, 1965. Schirra maneuvered the Gemini 6 spacecraft within 1 foot of its sister craft Gemini 7; the spacecraft were not equipped to dock with each other, but maintained station-keeping for more than 20 minutes. Schirra commented: Somebody said... when you come to within three miles, you've rendezvoused.
If anybody thinks they've pulled a rendezvous off at three miles, have fun! This is. I don't think rendezvous is over until you are stopped – stopped – with no relative motion between the two vehicles, at a range of 120 feet. That's rendezvous! From there on, it's stationkeeping. That's when you can go back and play the game of driving a car or driving an airplane or pushing a skateboard – it's about that simple, he used another example to describe the difference between the two nations' achievements: was a passing glance—the equivalent of a male walking down a busy main street with plenty of traffic whizzing by and he spots a cute girl walking on the other side. He's going'Hey wait' but she's gone. That's not a rendezvous. Now if that same male can cut across all that traffic and nibble on that girl's ear, now that's a rendezvous! The first docking of two spacecraft was achieved on March 16, 1966 when Gemini 8, under the command of Neil Armstrong and docked with an unmanned Agena Target Vehicle.
Gemini 6 was to have been the first docking mission, but had to be cancelled when that mission's Agena vehicle was destroyed during launch. The Soviets carried out the first automated, unmanned docking between Cosmos 186 and Cosmos 188 on October 30, 1967; the first Soviet cosmonaut to attempt a manual docking was Georgy Beregovoy who unsuccessfully tried to dock his Soyuz 3 craft with the unmanned Soyuz 2 in October 1968. He was able to bring his craft from 200 meters to as close as 30 centimetres, but was unable to dock before exhausting his maneuvering fuel; the Soviet's first successful manned docking occurred on January 16, 1969 when Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 docked and exchanged two crew members. The first rendezvous of two spacecraft from different countries took place on July 17, 1975, when an Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soyuz spacecraft as part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project; the first multiple space docking took place when both Soyuz 26 and Soyuz 27 were docked to the Salyut 6 space station during January 1978.
A rendezvous
Launch vehicle
A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket used to carry a payload from Earth's surface through outer space, either to another surface point, or into space. A launch system includes the launch vehicle, launch pad, vehicle assembly and fuelling systems, range safety, other related infrastructure. Suborbital launch vehicles include ballistic missiles, sounding rockets, various crewed systems designed for space tourism or high-speed transport. Orbital or escape launch vehicles must be much more powerful and incorporate two to four rocket stages to provide sufficient delta-v performance. Various rocket fuels are used, including solid rocket boosters and cryogenic fuels fed to rocket engines. Most launch vehicles are expendable i.e. used only once and destroyed or abandoned during the flight. Attempts to reduce per-launch costs have led to reusable launch systems, in which part of the launch vehicle is recovered and reused for another flight. Multiple classes of launch vehicle exist for use with differing launch sites, payload mass, target orbits, price points, etc.
Numerous countries have sought to develop indigenous launch vehicles for use in national space programs. Expendable launch vehicles are designed for one-time use, they separate from their payload and disintegrate during atmospheric reentry. In contrast, reusable launch vehicles are designed to be launched again; the Space Shuttle was a part of a launch vehicle with components used for multiple orbital spaceflights. SpaceX has developed a reusable rocket launching system to bring back a part—the first stage—of their Falcon 9 and launch it again, With B1046 having flown a total of three flights making it the most flown orbital class booster, Falcon Heavy launch vehicles. A reusable VTVL design is planned for all parts of the ITS launch vehicle; the low-altitude flight test program of an experimental technology-demonstrator launch vehicle began in 2012, with more extensive high-altitude over-water flight testing planned to begin in mid-2013, continue on each subsequent Falcon 9 flight. Non-rocket spacelaunch alternatives are progressing.
In June 2017, Stratolaunch Systems began ground testing the carrier aircraft component of its air launch to orbit system. The Stratolaunch is the world's largest aircraft, weighing 500,000 pounds and composed of twin fuselages with an overall wingspan of 385 feet; the Spanish company Zero 2 Infinity is developing another launch system concept, the Bloostar, a balloon-borne launcher based on rockoon technology. Launch vehicles are classified by the amount of mass they can carry into a particular orbit. For example, a Proton rocket can lift 22,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit. Launch vehicles are characterized by their number of stages. Rockets with as many as five stages have been launched, there have been designs for several single-stage-to-orbit vehicles. Additionally, launch vehicles are often supplied with boosters supplying high early thrust burning with other engines. Boosters allow the remaining engines to be smaller, reducing the burnout mass of stages to allow larger payloads. Other reported characteristics of launch vehicles are the launching nation or space agency and the company or consortium manufacturing and launching the vehicle.
For example, the European Space Agency is responsible for the Ariane V, the United Launch Alliance manufactures and launches the Delta IV and Atlas V rockets. Many launch vehicles are considered part of a historical line of vehicles of the same or similar name. Land: spaceport and fixed missile silo for converted ICBMs Sea: fixed platform, mobile platform, submarine for converted SLBMs Air: aircraft, balloon, JP Aerospace Orbital Ascender, proposal for permanent Buoyant space port. There are many ways to classify the sizes of launch vehicles; the US civilian space agency, NASA, uses a classification scheme, articulated by the Augustine Commission created to review plans for replacing the Space Shuttle: A sounding rocket, used to study the atmosphere or perform brief experiments, is only capable of sub-orbital spaceflight and cannot reach orbit. A small-lift launch vehicle is capable of lifting up to 2,000 kg of payload into low Earth orbit. A medium-lift launch vehicle is capable of lifting 2,000 to 20,000 kg of payload into LEO.
A heavy-lift launch vehicle is capable of lifting 20,000 to 50,000 kg of payload into LEO. A super-heavy lift vehicle is capable of lifting more than 50,000 kg of payload into LEO; the leading European launch service provider, Arianespace uses the "heavy-lift" designation for its >20,000 kg -to-LEO Ariane 5 launch vehicle and "medium-lift" for its array of launch vehicles that lift 2,000 to 20,000 kg to LEO, including the Starsem/Arianespace Soyuz ST and pre-1999 versions of the Ariane 5. It refers to its 1,500 kg to LEO Vega launch vehicle as "light lift". Suborbital launch vehicles are not capable of taking their payloads to the minimum horizontal speed necessary to achieve low Earth orbit with a perigee less than the Earth's mean radius, which speed is about 7,800 m/s. Sounding rockets have long been used for brief, inexpensive unmanne
Apollo command and service module
The Apollo command and service module was one of two principal components of the United States Apollo spacecraft, used for the Apollo program, which landed astronauts on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. The CSM functioned as a mother ship, which carried a crew of three astronauts and the second Apollo spacecraft, the lunar module, to lunar orbit, brought the astronauts back to Earth, it consisted of two parts: the conical command module, a cabin that housed the crew and carried equipment needed for atmospheric reentry and splashdown. An umbilical connection transferred power and consumables between the two modules. Just before reentry of the command module on the return home, the umbilical connection was severed and the service module was cast off and allowed to burn up in the atmosphere; the CSM was developed and built for NASA by North American Aviation starting in November 1961. It was designed to land on the Moon atop a landing rocket stage, return all three astronauts on a direct-ascent mission which would not use a separate lunar module, thus had no provisions for docking with another spacecraft.
This, plus other required design changes, led to the decision to design two versions of the CSM: Block I was to be used for uncrewed missions and a single crewed Earth orbit flight, while the more advanced Block II was designed for use with the lunar module. The Apollo 1 flight was cancelled after a cabin fire killed the crew and destroyed their command module during a launch rehearsal test. Corrections of the problems which caused the fire were applied to the Block II spacecraft, used for all crewed spaceflights. Nineteen CSMs were launched into space. Of these, nine flew humans to the Moon between 1968 and 1972, another two performed crewed test flights in low Earth orbit, all as part of the Apollo program. Before these, another four CSMs had flown as uncrewed Apollo tests, of which two were suborbital flights and another two were orbital flights. Following the conclusion of the Apollo program and during 1973–1974, three CSMs ferried astronauts to the orbital Skylab space station. In 1975, the last flown CSM docked with the Soviet craft Soyuz 19 as part of the international Apollo–Soyuz Test Project.
When NASA awarded the initial Apollo contract to North American Aviation on November 28, 1961, it was still assumed the lunar landing would be achieved by direct ascent rather than by lunar orbit rendezvous. Therefore, design proceeded without a means of docking the command module to a lunar excursion module, but the change to lunar orbit rendezvous, plus several technical obstacles encountered in some subsystems, soon made it clear that substantial redesign would be required. In 1963, NASA decided the most efficient way to keep the program on track was to proceed with the development in two versions: Block I would continue the preliminary design, to be used for early low Earth orbit test flights only. Block II would be the lunar-capable version, including a docking hatch and incorporating weight reduction and lessons learned in Block I. Detailed design of the docking capability depended on design of the LEM, contracted to Grumman Aircraft Engineering. By January 1964, North American started presenting Block II design details to NASA.
Block I spacecraft were used for all unmanned Saturn Saturn V test flights. Two manned flights were planned, but this was reduced to one in late 1966; this mission, designated AS-204 but named Apollo 1 by its flight crew, was planned for launch on February 21, 1967. But during a dress rehearsal for the launch on January 27, all three astronauts were killed in a cabin fire which revealed serious design and maintenance shortcomings in Block I, many of, carried over into Block II command modules being built at the time. After a thorough investigation by the Apollo 204 Review Board, it was decided to terminate the manned Block I phase and redefine Block II to incorporate the review board's recommendations. Block II incorporated a revised CM heat shield design, tested on the unmanned Apollo 4 and Apollo 6 flights, so the first all-up Block II spacecraft flew on the first manned mission, Apollo 7; the two blocks were similar in overall dimensions, but several design improvements resulted in weight reduction in Block II.
The Block I service module propellant tanks were larger than in Block II. The Apollo 1 spacecraft weighed 45,000 pounds, while the Block II Apollo 7 weighed 36,400 lb. In the specifications given below, unless otherwise noted, all weights given are for the Block II spacecraft; the total cost of the CSM for development and the units produced was $36.9B in 2016 dollars, adjusted from a nominal total of $3.7B using the NASA New Start Inflation Indices. The command module was a truncated cone 10 feet 7 inches tall with a diameter of 12 feet 10 inches across the base; the forward compartment contained two reaction control engines, the docking tunnel, the components of the Earth Landing System. The inner pressure vessel housed the crew accommodations, equipment bays and displays, many spacecraft systems; the last section, the aft compartment, contained 10 reaction control engines and their related propellant tanks, fresh water tanks, the CSM umbilical cables. The command module consisted of two basic structures j
McDonnell Aircraft Corporation
The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer based in St. Louis, Missouri; the company was founded on July 6, 1939 by James Smith McDonnell, was best known for its military fighters, including the F-4 Phantom II, manned spacecraft including the Mercury capsule and Gemini capsule. McDonnell Aircraft merged with the Douglas Aircraft Company to form McDonnell Douglas in 1967. James McDonnell founded J. S. McDonnell & Associates in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1928 to produce a personal aircraft for family use; the economic depression from 1929 ruined his plans and the company collapsed. He went to work for Glenn L. Martin, he left in 1938 to try again with his own firm, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, based at St. Louis, Missouri in 1939. World War II was a major boost to the new company, it grew from 15 employees in 1939 to 5,000 at the end the war and became a significant aircraft parts producer, developed the XP-67 Bat fighter prototype. McDonnell developed the LBD-1 Gargoyle guided missile.
McDonnell Aircraft suffered after the war with an end of government orders and a surplus of aircraft, cut its workforce. The advent of the Korean War helped push McDonnell into a major military fighter supply role. In 1943, McDonnell began developing jets when they were invited to bid in a US Navy contest and built the successful FH-1 Phantom in the postwar era; the Phantom introduced McDonnell's telltale design with engines placed forward under the fuselage and exiting just behind the wing, a layout that would be used on the F2H Banshee, F3H Demon, the F-101 Voodoo. Dave Lewis joined the company as Chief of Aerodynamics in 1946, he led the development of the legendary F-4 Phantom II in 1954, introduced into service in 1960. Lewis became Executive Vice President in 1958, became President and Chief Operating Officer in 1962. Lewis went on to manage Douglas Aircraft Division in 1967 after the McDonnell Douglas merger. In 1969, he returned to St. Louis as President of McDonnell Douglas. McDonnell made a number of missiles, including the pioneering Gargoyle and unusual ADM-20 Quail, as well as experimenting with hypersonic flight, research that enabled them to gain a substantial share of the NASA projects Mercury and Gemini.
The company was having problems. It had no civilian side, was thus vulnerable to any peacetime downturn in procurement. Meanwhile, Douglas Aircraft was reeling from cash flow problems and development costs, it was having a hard time meeting demand. The two companies began sounding each other out about a merger in 1963. On paper, they were a good match. Douglas' civilian business would have been more than enough to allow McDonnell to withstand any downturns in military procurement, while the cash flow from McDonnell's military contracts would have given Douglas badly-needed security. Douglas formally accepted McDonnell's offer in December 1966, the two firms merged on April 28, 1967 as the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, based at McDonnell's facility in St. Louis. In 1967, with the merger of McDonnell and Douglas Aircraft, Dave Lewis president of McDonnell, was named chairman of what was called the Long Beach, Douglas Aircraft Division. Lewis managed the turnaround of the division. McDonnell Douglas would merge with Boeing in August 1997.
Boeing's defense and space division is based at the old McDonnell facility in St. Louis, is responsible for defense and space products and services. McDonnell Douglas's legacy product programs include the F-15 Eagle, AV-8B Harrier II, F/A-18 Hornet, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. TD2D/KDD/KDH Katydid target drone, 1942 XP-67 experimental twin-engine propeller fighter FH Phantom twin-engine jet fighter F2H Banshee twin-engine naval jet fighter XF-85 Goblin experimental jet fighter XF-88 Voodoo experimental twin-engine fighter F3H Demon single-engine naval jet fighter F-101 Voodoo twin-engine supersonic, long-range jet fighter-bomber and interceptor F-4 Phantom II two-seat, twin-engine supersonic, long-range all-weather fighter-bomber McDonnell 119/220 business jet XV-1 Convertiplane VTOL XH-20 Little Henry experimental ramjet-rotor powered helicopter XHJH-1 Whirlaway twin-engine helicopter built in 1946 McDonnell Model 113 large military transport convertiplane project Model 120 experimental crane/lifting helicopter Mercury capsule Gemini capsule ASSET spaceplane ADM-20 Quail LBD Gargoyle PJ-42 pulse-jet engine Sanford N. McDonnell, nephew of founder and President, CEO and Chair of McDonnell Douglas.
Francillon, René J. McDonnell Douglas Aircraft since 1920. London:Putnam, 1979. ISBN 0-370-00050-1. McDonnell Aircraft history 1939-45 McDonnell Aircraft history 1946-56 McDonnell Aircraft history 1957-67 McDonnell Gemini Space Program 1963-1966 List of all McDonnell model numbers through 1974
USS Guam (LPH-9)
USS Guam, an Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship, was laid down by the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 15 November 1962. Emory Green, commissioned on 16 January 1965, Captain N. E. Thurmon in command, she was the third US Navy ship to carry the name, after the Battle of Guam. Decommissioned in 1998, she was the last of the Iwo Jima class in service. After fitting out and builder's trials, the new amphibious assault ship joined the U. S. Atlantic Fleet on 21 April 1965 and sailed for Norfolk, her homeport. Arriving Hampton Roads the next day for training off the Virginia Capes, she departed Hampton Roads for underway training out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Guam returned to Norfolk on 5 July 1965 for intensive amphibious training, she sailed from Hampton Roads on 29 November 1965 to participate in amphibious and anti-submarine warfare exercises en route to the Caribbean. On 10 December 1965, Guam joined the Amphibious Ready Squadron in the Caribbean as flagship for Amphibious Squadron 12. There she operated at peak readiness to protect the peace and security of the Caribbean and Central America.
From 16 February to 28 February 1966, Guam patrolled south of the Dominican Republic ready to land forces on the volatile island of Hispanola if necessary. She conducted amphibious exercises until entering Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 1 June 1966 for post shakedown availability, she departed Philadelphia on 2 August 1966 and prepared for service as the primary recovery ship for the Gemini 11 space flight. On 18 September, at 0959 EDT, Guam recovered Astronauts Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon 710 miles east of Cape Kennedy. From 28 November to 12 December, Guam participated in Exercise "Lantflex 66", on the latter date became flagship of Amphibious Squadron 8 and Caribbean Amphibious Ready Group. In the summer of 1971, Guam was chosen as a test vessel for Admiral Elmo Zumwalt's Sea Control Ship concept; this ship was to operate a few VSTOL fighters and some ASW helicopters in order to free up supercarriers from convoy duty during a conflict with the Soviet Union. On 18 January 1972, she began extensive testing and in 1974 deployed in the Atlantic as a sea control ship with Marine Corps AV-8A Harrier VSTOL fighters and Sea King ASW helicopters.
Guam completed the SCS tests and reassumed her role as an Amphibious Assault Ship on 1 July 1974. In October 1974 her aircraft complement, operated by the US Marine Corps, comprised six AV-8A, eight CH-46F Sea Knights, five CH-53D Sea Stallions and two Bell UH-1N Iroquis utility helicopters. On 17 January 1977, in Barcelona, Spain, a landing craft being used as a liberty boat by USS Trenton and USS Guam, was run over by a freighter; the Mike8 boat came to rest against the fleet landing pier. Crewmembers from both vessels were on hand to assist with rescue operations. There were over marines on board the landing craft. 49 sailors and marines were killed. A memorial is erected at the landing pier in memory. While operating 50 km southeast of Morehead City, North Carolina, on 19 July 1981, a Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter crashed into another CH-53 and a Bell UH-1N Twin Huey on landing. 4 crewmen died and 10 were injured. Guam deployed to Beirut in 1982 for the Lebanese civil war as part of a multi-national peacekeeping force.
In October 1983, bound for another stint off the coast of Lebanon, she was redirected to the Caribbean to serve as the flagship for Operation Urgent Fury, the invasion of Grenada. After operations in Grenada, she continued onto Lebanon with Amphibious Squadron Four/22nd Marine Amphibious Unit embarked returning to CONUS on 1 May 1984. In early 1985, the ship was drydocked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and given a massive overhaul lasting several months. Two Phalanx CIWS were added to the ship at this time. On January 28, 1986, the USS Guam was off the East Coast of Florida en route to Operational Trials, "Oppies", off of Puerto Rico when, while many crewmen were watching it on TV, the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up nearly above them. USS Guam recovered many floating pieces of debris from the disaster, including a nose-cone from one of the booster rockets. For her around-the-clock efforts in the recovery mission her crew earned a Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Citation. May through November 1986 she was deployed on MARG 2-86 in the Mediterranean.
During this deployment, the ship was damaged while sailing through a tropical storm off the East Coast of the United States while en route to Rota, Spain. Gross command error had decided to sail directly through the storm, rather than go around it. A sailor on an escort ship was killed in a fall. Waves stripped the decking from the fantail 50 ft above the water. All personnel were confined to racks for three days due to immense rocking. At least two helicopters were washed overboard and the ship stayed at port in Toulon, France for three weeks for repairs, she departed from Norfolk in August 1990, under the command of Captain Chuck Saffell, to deploy to the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, with less than a month's notice. When her crew received notice of the deployment the boilers and electrical generators were torn down for a long term overhaul. Many in the engineering department worked a full day to return two hours for a following day. On 2 January 1991, the Guam along with the USS Trenton were dispatched from anchorage off Oman to Somalia to airlift the US embassy in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, enveloped by violence when rebels entered the city and the central government collapsed.
On 5–6 January, 281 US and foreign nationals were airlifted from the embassy, including all of the embassy's staff a
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
.jpg)
_at_California_Science_Center.jpg)
_at_California_Science_Center.JPG)
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
