One False Step by Richard Tongue Read Free Book Online

that was meant to be a docking test was Gemini 6, but the target vehicle, an Atlas-Agena, failed and instead, the flight plan was hurriedly changed to a rendezvous with Gemini 7, the first true rendezvous of two manned spacecraft.
     Gemini 8 was the next attempt, and this too went awry; the commander of the spacecraft, none other than Neil Armstrong, managed to dock with the target successfully, but the craft then malfunctioned, sending the docked complex into a violent series of spins. Though he was able to bring the craft under some sort of control, so much fuel was used that an immediate return to Earth was required – but he had completed the first manned docking of two spacecraft.
     The remaining four Gemini missions were almost anticlimaxes in comparison. Each of them consisted of one rendezvous and docking, and new spacewalk procedures were tested and demonstrated. Gemini 11 set an altitude record, with the Agena firing to push the Gemini into a higher 850-mile orbit. By any estimation, the Gemini was a successful spacecraft, accomplishing all of its planned objectives and placing the United States firmly on the road that would lead it to the moon on Apollo, giving NASA a technological maturity that it had lacked before.
     There were many who thought, however, that the Gemini might have more potential than it was being afforded by its place in NASA's lunar plan. As early as 1961, in the early days of vehicle design, there was some discussion that the Gemini could go beyond Earth orbit, and could venture as far as the moon – years earlier than with Project Apollo.
     The plan originated with the final planning for 'Mercury Mark II', and would rely on the use of a second vehicle to propel the Gemini to the moon. This was intended as the climax of an intended prolonged Gemini development program; under the original plan submitted to NASA, there would be fourteen manned flights, rather than ten. The final four flights would dock with a Centaur, instead of the Agena. The Centaur, like the Agena, was an upper stage that could be fitted to an Atlas rocket, and used as a docking target for the Gemini spacecraft – but the Centaur had far greater thrust than the Agena.
     The first two flights would in many ways resemble Gemini 11, and would simply see the Gemini boosted to a high altitude – though 80,000 miles above the Earth, instead of the 850 miles that Gemini 11 rose to. These would provide a test of deep-space operations, sending the spacecraft a third of the way to the Moon, and preparing for the final two flights – which would send the Gemini spacecraft around the Moon on a lunar flyby, again using the Centaur for the final boost. (This mission profile had many similarities to the Soviet Zond series of missions.) It was estimated that these circumlunar missions could be flown as early as 1965 .
     NASA received two plans for Gemini operations. The first, as described, had fourteen manned missions, but the second streamlined that down to just nine, including one unmanned mission to begin with. The docking and rendezvous techniques that in reality were the goals of six of the last seven Gemini spacecraft would be condensed down into just two missions, to be followed by the four missions that concluded the longer program. Not only would this be a cheaper program, but it was thought that the first of the missions on this schedule might be flown in 1964 .
     These proposals made some sense at the time. Apollo was still being projected as a 'direct-ascent' craft, designed as one complete spacecraft, all of which would land on the moon. This would limit its suitability for other operations – using the Gemini for the first circumlunar missions could be sensible. Another key advantage was cost; adding these missions to the roster of Gemini missions, even with the increased development costs, would have proven substantially cheaper than Apollo. However, it had one major flaw in the minds of the senior NASA