Fitted with an electronic guidance computer (boasting some 12 kilobytes of memory and interchangeable programs on magnetic tape), multiple thrusters and radar, one of the primary missions of Gemini was to prove that two spacecraft could rendezvous and dock in orbit. ![]() This was, after all, a spacecraft designed to be flown. “The way the seats and windows were orientated made it much more like an aircraft than the previous Mercury capsules.” “They referred to this as the fighter pilot’s spacecraft,” says Stewart. Every Gemini astronaut spent hours in this module to practise routines and drill procedures. The museum’s Gemini capsule is one of the original mission simulators. “You could equate it to the driver and passenger seat of a VW Beatle.” “It’s a very small space,“ says Ed Stewart, director of exhibits and curation at the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama as we stand in front of one of the capsules. There was no toilet, so you will need some plastic bags. In fact the best way to appreciate what a Gemini mission was like is to put on a spacesuit and lock yourself in the front of your car with a work colleague for up to two weeks. Above each seat is a hatch, which astronauts could open to leave the craft for spacewalks. Inside the cone-shaped capsule are two seats, an instrument panel and central control console, much like the layout of a car. From malfunctioning thrusters that caused violent spinning, to docking modules that failed to deploy and ejector seats that shredded test dummies, the Gemini missions saw more than their fair share of mishaps.ĭesigned to carry two astronauts into orbit, Gemini looks unlike any other spacecraft before or since. This was by no means the only near-miss during the short-lived Gemini space programme. He eventually made it back into the spacecraft although, thanks to his cumbersome metal trousers, had to painfully squeeze himself down into the seat to shut the hatch. “Needless to say, that got my attention.”įortunately for Cernan, preparing the AMU was so onerous that the procedure was aborted by mission control before the astronaut could switch the machine on. “You’re handicapped out there in a pressure suit that doesn’t give you much mobility, travelling around the world at 18,000mph (28,800km/h) and can’t see,” he says. He later termed the experience “the spacewalk from hell”. “They had one of these rocket nozzles coming right up between my legs – that should have raised some questions to start with.”īreathing heavily, with his suit overheating and visor fogging up, the astronaut struggled to get the contraption to work. ![]() “It was a real rocket, powered by hydrogen peroxide,” says Cernan. ![]() He was issued with woven chainmail trousers for protection against the rocket’s exhaust.
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