Space: And Now Apollo

Swaying under a marigold-and-white parachute, and clearly visible on millions of television screens, Gemini 12 splashed into the Sargasso Sea last week, bringing Astronauts James Lovell and Edwin Aldrin safely back from their successful four-day trip in space. The splashdown marked the triumphant end of NASA’s remarkably fruitful Gemini program. Since March 1965, the Gemini astronauts have made ten manned flights, rendezvoused ten times with target vehicles, docked nine times, and set a host of other space records. They have also proved that man can fly as safely in spacecraft as in airplanes, and that NASA’s complex plans for placing men on the moon are basically sound.

Gemini’s finale and Astronaut Aldrin’s record-breaking total of 5 hrs. 36 min. of EVA (extra vehicular activity) relieved NASA officials of the nagging fear that they had overestimated man’s ability to work in space. During two stand-up photographic sessions through his open hatch and a 129-minute “space walk,” Aldrin experienced none of the difficulties encountered during earlier EVAs. He completed his assigned tasks without becoming overheated or exhausted.

Window-Washer Technology. Careful preparation made the difference. Fitted out in a” Gemini pressure suit that made him neutrally buoyant in water and thus simulated weightlessness, Aldrin spent a total of a dozen hours underwater in a research pool in Baltimore (TIME, Sept. 30). Maneuvering around a submerged mock-up of Gemini 12, he rehearsed his assign ments, learning to pace himself properly.

To avoid a major problem of previous space walkers—the exhausting effort required to position and steady themselves in space—NASA scientists provided Aldrin with a number of new body restraints. Borrowing from window-washer technology, they fitted him with two harnesses that could be hooked to rings strategically placed around the spacecraft. In addition, he carried two flatiron-shaped handholds that had their bottoms covered with Velcro, an adhesive-like nylon material. When Aldrin slapped his handholds against patches of Velcro plastered on the skin of both Gemini and Agena, they stuck until he pulled them free, providing additional anchors in space.

With such aids, and by installing an 8-ft. telescoping handrail between Gemini and Agena while the crafts were docked, Aldrin was able to maintain his equilibrium. With frequent two-minute rests, he first moved forward to the Agena and secured its 100-ft. tether to Gemini’s docking bar, an assignment that had proved exasperating and difficult for unanchored Gemini 11 Astronaut Richard Gordon.

Aldrin’s next assignment took him back to Gemini’s adapter section, where NASA scientists had installed a small work panel used by astronauts to practice typical space repair jobs. Aldrin fastened and unfastened fluid connectors, tightened and loosened bolts, disconnected electrical wiring, and tested and discarded patches of Velcro. After moving forward again to work on a similar but smaller panel, he returned to Gemini’s cabin, barely winded.

Better Photography. Though Aldrin had fewer troubles than earlier space walkers, Gemini 12 itself had more than its share of minor problems. One by one, during the flight, four of Gemini’s 16 thrusters failed. Two of the craft’s six fuel-cell stacks went dead, and excess water produced by the others threatened to flood the entire power system. To make room for the excess fuel-cell water, which is impure, the astronauts were asked to consume more than their planned ration of drinking water and ran short on the last day of the flight.

Despite these glitches, the astronauts doggedly followed their flight plan, even repeated Gemini 11 ‘s feat of flying in tethered formation with the undocked Agena. “If you want to have some fun,” Aldrin radioed to ground controllers, “try doing this with two attitude thrusters out.” The astronauts also dispelled a growing suspicion that good astronauts make bad photographers. Unlike many previous Mercury and Gemini photographers, who underexposed, fogged and even lost some of their film, Lovell and Aldrin brought back roll after roll of beautifully exposed movie and still pictures, including shots of the total solar eclipse taken the previous week.

Their Gemini missions successfully accomplished, U.S. astronauts can now turn their full attention to Apollo, which will make its first three-man orbital flight during the first quarter of 1967 and may carry U.S. astronauts to the moon as early as 1968.