Gemini IV lifted off from Launch Complex 19 at Cape Kennedy
on June 3, 1965, with astronauts James A. McDivitt and Edward
H. White. Most remember the flight for demonstrating the ability
of astronauts to operate safely in space with an orbiting
vehicle. For 20 minutes White, who carried a hand-held maneuvering
unit (known as a zip gun) powered by pressurized oxygen, was
easily able to move about in space. Flight director Gene Kranz
recalled the event as “one of those magical moments,
like Alan Shepard’s launch and John Glenn’s reentry,
that are forever embedded in my memory.”
Gemini IV was also the first flight to be controlled by the
newly built Mission Operations Control Room (pronounced MOKE-R)
in Houston, Texas. Previously the Cape’s Mercury Control
Center, deemed a dinosaur after only a few years, managed
the Mercury flights and first few Gemini missions. The Houston
control center was much larger than the old space, featuring
new and faster computers, and surrounded by staff support
rooms filled with spacecraft experts to help flight controllers
during missions. The new MOCR represented a giant leap forward
for the nation’s space program. Flight controllers appreciated
the new facility, which was close to home, because it meant
that they no longer had to spend precious time away from family,
sleep in cheap motel rooms, and eat at greasy diners.
As a result of these two factors many news reporters traveled
to Houston to cover that summer’s story. Unfortunately
Building One’s auditorium (now known as Building Two)
had only 800 seats for reporters, 300 hundred seats short
of those requested by the press. The requests overwhelmed
the Center, which anticipated 300 reporters for the launch
and about 200 more following the liftoff. Given the shortage
of space the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) leased a building
across the street from the Center to serve as a news center,
known as “Building Six.” The Gemini News Center
in Nassau Bay accommodated the media who came to Houston to
cover the Gemini Project. The news center ran television pictures
of operations in the MOCR on a delayed basis. The use of TV
cameras in orbit had been suggested by Public Affairs, but
NASA Headquarters management vetoed the idea, declaring the
costs frivolous.
Gemini IV, in orbit 4 days, 1 hour, 56 min, 12 seconds, was
the longest flight ever managed, to that date, by MSC flight
control, necessitating the teams operate on a three-shift
basis to cover the mission round the clock. Mercury flights
were about 15 minutes to 34 hours in duration, and all were
treated like short missions, even the longest flight of the
project which circled the Earth for more than 24 hours. Three
flight directors headed up the Red, White, and Blue flight
control teams for Gemini IV: Christopher C. Kraft, Eugene
F. Kranz, and John D. Hodge. The teams learned a great deal
about managing long-duration spaceflight during the mission
that they would apply to upcoming Gemini and Apollo missions.
One of the innovations instituted during Gemini IV was the
change-of-shift briefing, to keep the media abreast of mission
events. After 10 hours in the control center, 8 on console
and 2 on handovers, the flight director participated in a
press conference. Kraft remembers these change-of-shift briefings
being difficult and long; other times they could be simple
and short. Unfortunately, some reporters covering Gemini seemed
obsessed with the number of fecal container bags—known
as blue-bags—filled each day, and Kraft recalls that
he would have to deliver a “blue-bag status” at
these conferences.
After 4 days in space, the Gemini IV capsule splashed down
in the Atlantic Ocean, safely returning the crew to Earth.
The press lauded the flight, and NASA management declared
that the success of the mission could potentially accelerate
the date the space agency expected to land on the Moon.
For more information on this exciting mission, read some selected
oral history interview excerpts about Gemini
IV. And for more memories and experiences from more than
700 remarkable people involved in the space program over the
last 50 years, read their oral histories available
on the JSC History Portal: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/oral_histories.htm.
View
the Gemini IV photo gallery!
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