MARCH/APRIL 2014
29
50 Years Ago...
Unmanned Gemini 1
Launched
New chapter in U.S. space program
begins
by Frank Kourt and CJ Sebastian,
Staff Writers
On April 8, 1964, at 11:01 a.m., the
sky over Cape Kennedy, Fla., lit up
with the exhaust of a Titan 2 rocket
as a new phase in the U.S. space
program began.
The Gemini program was the
successor to the highly successful
Mercury program, which made
Alan Shepard the first American
to achieve sub-orbital flight. The
Mercury program achieved orbital
flight when John Glenn orbited the
earth three times during a five-hour
mission in 1962.
Gemini 1 was an experimental
mission, launching an unmanned
spacecraft into orbit for testing purposes. Not only was the spacecraft
itself tested, but so was the Titan
2 launch vehicle. The event also
marked the beginning of the “space
race” between the United States
and the Soviet Union. The “Gemini” name was chosen because it
would carry two men, reminiscent
of the twins of the astrological
constellation.
The launch gave scientists an opportunity to check the functions
of various tracking equipment and
procedures and heating conditions,
a malfunction-detection system
and other components in order to
ensure the safety and efficiency of
the craft and the launch vehicle for
future manned missions.
Gemini 1 was launched from Complex 19 at the Cape Kennedy Space
Center. Within six minutes, the
capsule and the second stage of the
booster rocket achieved earth orbit.
Because the mission was a test
and there were no plans to recover
any of the components, there was
no separation of the capsule from
the second stage of the booster
planned.
Mission Control carefully monitored the spacecraft during the
flight. On April 12, on its 64th
orbital pass, it re-entered the earth’s
atmosphere and disintegrated over
the southern Atlantic as planned.
An additional 10 manned Gemini
missions, lasting up to two weeks,
followed during 1965 and 1966.
These missions tested the spacecraft’s maneuverability, rendezvousing and docking. Experiments were
conducted outside the spacecraft,
and re-entry control, orbital navigation and other tasks that would
prove crucial for putting a human
on the moon were evaluated. While
the first two Gemini launches were
unmanned, the third through the
twelfth all carried pilots. The flights
would test human endurance while
in space. They continued until November 1966 and were estimated
to cost $1.3 billion in 1967 dollars.
However, the leap into the future
and the degree of achievement was
inestimable.
The event also
marked the
beginning of the
“space race”
between the
United States
and the Soviet
Union.
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