Gemini VIII - Orbiter Space Flight Simulator
Facebook. Advances, pictures, details, comments:
http://www.facebook.com/orbiterfilmmaker
Gemini 8 (officially
Gemini VIII) was the sixth manned spaceflight in
NASA's
Gemini program. The mission conducted the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit, but suffered the first critical in-space system failure of a
U.S. spacecraft which threatened the lives of the astronauts and required immediate abort of the mission. The crew was returned to
Earth safely.
Gemini 8 launch and ascent were nominal, was successful on March 16, 1966, 16:41:02
UTC. The crew,
Neil Armstrong and
David Scott.
The rendezvous radar acquired the
Agena Target Vehicle at a distance of 332 km. At 3 hours, 48 minutes and 10 seconds into the mission they performed another burn that put them in a circular orbit 28 km below the
Agena. They first sighted it when they were 141 km away, and at 102 km they gave the computer automatic control. After several small burns they were 46 m away and with no relative velocity. After
30 minutes of visually inspecting the Agena to make sure that it had not been damaged by the launch, they were given the go for docking.
Armstrong started to move towards the Agena at 8 centimeters per second. In a matter of minutes, the Agena's docking latches clicked and a green light indicated that the docking had been successfully completed. "
Flight, we are docked!
Yes, it's really a smoothie,"
Scott radioed to the ground.
After the Agena began execution of its stored command program, which instructed the Agena to turn the combined spacecraft 90° to the right, Scott noticed that they were in a roll. Armstrong used the Gemini's
Orbit Attitude and Maneuvering System (
OAMS) thrusters to stop the roll, but after the roll stopped, it immediately started again. Gemini 8 was out of range of ground communications at this time. Armstrong reported that the OAMS fuel had dropped to 30%, indicating that the problem could be on their own spacecraft. With concern that the high spin rate might damage one or both spacecraft or even lead to the propellant-heavy Agena rupturing or exploding, they decided to undock from the Agena so they could analyze the situation.
Without the added mass of the Agena, the Gemini's rate of spin began to accelerate quickly.
Soon after this, they came in range of the ground communications ship
Coastal Sentry Quebec. By now the spin rate had reached one revolution per second, causing the astronauts' vision to become blurred and putting them in danger of losing consciousness or suffering vertigo. Armstrong decided to shut down the OAMS and used the
Re-entry Control System (
RCS) thrusters to stop the spin. After steadying the spacecraft, they tested each OAMS thruster in turn and found that
Number 8 had stuck on.
Almost 75% of the reentry maneuvering fuel had been used to stop the spin,[9] and mission rules dictated that the flight be aborted once the RCS was fired for any reason. Gemini 8 immediately prepared for an emergency landing.
It was decided to let the spacecraft reenter one orbit later so that it could land in a place that could be reached by the secondary recovery forces. The original plan was for Gemini 8 to land in the
Atlantic, but that was supposed to be three days later. So
USS Leonard F. Mason started to steam towards the new landing site 800 kilometers east of
Okinawa and 1,
000 kilometers south of
Yokosuka, Japan.
Reentry took place over
China, out of range of NASA tracking stations.