Space: Soft Landing on Hard Ground

The unmanned Gemini capsule that descended on the desolate scrub outside Fort Hood, Texas, had not even come close to orbit. It had simply been car ried aloft by an Air Force C-119 trans port and cut loose at the relatively low altitude of 11,000 ft. But the prosaic flight was an effort to answer important questions’ Can capsules such as Gemini be brought down to soft landings on hard ground, and can future astronauts be given any control over the point of impact? To both questions the answer was an impressive yes.

Moments after the capsule was dropped from the C-119, a small drogue parachute opened to keep the spaceship from tumbling. Then a larger chute yanked loose the cover of a container, letting a 70-ft, red-white-and-blue “parasail” spill out in rippling folds.

Surface Slots. On the ground, Lee Norman, NASA parasail-project engineer, sat at his instrument panel, per forming functions by remote control that might have been handled by on board astronauts. With remarkable ease, Norman sailed his descending craft for ward and back, left and right, like a pilot looking for a place to land. Control was maintained by pulling on shroud lines that closed or opened slots around the surface of the parasail. With slots closed on one side, air spilled out the other, acting, in effect, as an in efficient jet engine, shoving the chute and its cargo toward the closed side.

For five minutes the capsule dropped. Then, while it was still some 12 ft. in the air, a long sensing probe hanging from its belly made contact with the ground. The sensor automatically fired two small braking rockets about the size of portable fire extinguishers. With a resounding bang and a thick cloud of grey smoke, the capsule touched down on a tricycle landing gear similar to a set of small water skis.

The success of the parasail, after two earlier failures, has not prompted NASA to make any plans for bringing future Gemini flights down on land. Gemini V, scheduled to go up next week, will end up bobbing in the sea like all the others.

Sense of Secrecy. There is good geographical reason for the decision. U.S. spaceships are over water as soon as they take off from Cape Kennedy; they must be equipped for emergency water landings anyway. To add parasail equipment would take up valuable weight and space. Russian engineers, on the other hand, launch their spacecraft over broad stretches of land; thus they have concentrated on ground landings. Besides, the Soviet sense of secrecy makes them want to bring down their capsules on Soviet soil, not international waters.

In the U.S. the new parasail offers the most immediate promise for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (TIME, Aug. 6) which will bring back a capsule-ful of secret scientific and military data.