Gemini 3

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Gemini 3
Astronauts John Young and Gus Grissom walk up the ramp leading to the elevator that will carry them to the spacecraft for the first crewed Gemini mission
Mission typeTest flight
OperatorNASA
COSPAR ID1965-024A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.1301
Mission duration4 hours, 52 minutes, 31 seconds
Distance travelled128,748 kilometers (80,000 mi)
Orbits completed3
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft
McDonnell
Launch mass3,237 kilograms (7,136 lb)
Crew
Crew size2
Members
CallsignMolly Brown
Start of mission
Launch dateMarch 23, 1965, 14:24:00 (1965-03-23UTC14:24Z) UTC
Rocket
LC-19
End of mission
Recovered byUSS Intrepid
Landing dateMarch 23, 1965, 19:16:31 (1965-03-23UTC19:16:32Z) UTC
Landing site22°26′N 70°51′W / 22.433°N 70.850°W / 22.433; -70.850 (Gemini 3 splashdown)
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeLow Earth orbit
Perigee altitude161 kilometers (87 nmi)
Apogee altitude225 kilometers (121 nmi)
Inclination32.6 degrees
Period88.35 minutes
EpochMarch 23, 1965[1]
Gemini III Insignia
Gemini III Patch

(L-R) Grissom, Young 

Gemini 3 was the first crewed mission in

Manned Spacecraft Center
in Houston, Texas.

Crew

Position Astronaut
Command Pilot Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom
Second and last spaceflight
Pilot John W. Young
First spaceflight

Backup crew

Position Astronaut
Command Pilot Walter M. Schirra
Pilot Thomas P. Stafford

(This was the prime crew on Gemini 6)

Original crew

Position Astronaut
Command Pilot
Alan B. Shepard
Pilot
Thomas P. Stafford

The crew of Gemini 3 was changed after Shepard was grounded with an inner ear disorder in late 1963.

Support crew

Mission parameters

  • Mass: 3,236.9 kg (7,136 lb)
  • Perigee
    :
    161.2 kilometers (100.2 mi)
  • Apogee
    :
    224.2 kilometers (139.3 mi)
  • Inclination
    :
    32.6 degrees
  • Period: 88.3 minutes

Objectives

Young atop a Gemini spacecraft with Grissom in the water at left at the Manned Spacecraft Center during water egress training

The mission's primary goal was to test the new, maneuverable Gemini spacecraft. In space, the crew fired thrusters to change the shape of their orbit, shift their orbital plane slightly, and drop to a lower altitude. Other firsts were achieved on Gemini 3: two people flew aboard an American spacecraft (the Soviet Union launched a three-person crew on Voskhod 1 in 1964 and a two-person crew just a few days earlier on Voskhod 2, upstaging the two-person Gemini and three-person Apollo programs), and the first crewed reentry where the spacecraft was able to produce lift to change its touchdown point.

The mission also tested a system that had originally been designed for the cancelled Mercury-Atlas 10 mission, in which water was injected into the plasma sheath surrounding the capsule during re-entry. This had the effect of improving communications with the ground.[3]

First orbital maneuver by crewed spacecraft

On March 23, 1965, at 15:57:00 UTC, at the end of the first orbit, over Corpus Christi, Texas, a 1-minute 14 second burn of the Orbit Attitude and Maneuvering System (OAMS) engines gave a reverse delta-V of 15.5 meters per second (51 ft/s), which changed the orbit from 161.2 by 224.2 kilometers (87.0 by 121.1 nautical miles) (with a period of 88.3 minutes), to an orbit of 158 by 169 kilometers (85 by 91 nmi) (period of 87.8 minutes). This was the first orbital maneuver made by any crewed spacecraft.

Flight

Launch of the first crewed Gemini flight
Astronaut Roger B. Chaffee is shown at console in the Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas during Gemini 3's flight

Gus Grissom, hoping to avoid duplication of the experience with his

splashdown, named the Gemini 3 spacecraft Molly Brown, in a playful reference to the Broadway musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown. NASA management did not like this name, and asked him to change it. Grissom replied, "How about the Titanic
?". The managers relented and allowed Grissom to keep Molly Brown, but this was the last Gemini flight they allowed the astronauts to name.

The only major incident during the orbital phase involved a contraband

smuggled on board, hiding it in a pocket of his spacesuit (though Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton wrote in his autobiography that he gave Young permission to do so). Grissom found this to be highly amusing, saying later, "After the flight our superiors at NASA let us know in no uncertain terms that non-man-rated corned beef sandwiches were out for future space missions. But John's deadpan offer of this strictly non-regulation goodie remains one of the highlights of our flight for me."[4]

The crewmen each took a few bites before the sandwich was restowed. The crumbs it released could have wreaked havoc with the craft's electronics, so the crewmen were reprimanded when they returned to Earth. Other crews were warned not to pull the same type of stunt.[5]

Two small failures occurred in-flight. The first was an experiment testing the synergistic effect of zero gravity on sea urchin eggs. A lever essential to the experiment broke off when pulled. The second involved the photographic coverage objective. It was only partially successful due to an improper lens setting on the 16 mm camera.

Early in the flight, the crew noticed the craft gradually yawing left:

00 18 41 (Command Pilot) I seem to have a leak. There must be a leak in one of the thrusters, because I get a continuous yaw left.

00 18 53 (CapCom) Roger. Understand that you get a continuous yaw left.

00 18 57 (Command Pilot) Very slight. Very slow drift.[6]

First attributed to a stuck thruster, the problem was traced to a venting water boiler.[7]

The crewmen made their first

splashdown point.[8]

This was not the only unexpected event of the short descent: After its parachutes were deployed, the spacecraft shifted from a vertical to horizontal attitude. The change was so sudden that Grissom cracked his faceplate (made of acrylic) on the control panel in front of him. Later Gemini spacesuits and all Apollo and Space Shuttle (both launch-entry and EVA suits) used polycarbonate plastic.

A U.S. Coast Guard HH-52A over the Gemini 3 capsule.

Upon landing, the astronauts decided to stay in the capsule, not wanting to open the hatch before the arrival of the recovery ship. The crew spent an uncomfortable half-hour in a spacecraft not designed to be a boat. Due to unexpected smoke from the thrusters, the astronauts decided to deviate from the post landing checklist and to keep their helmets on with the face plates closed for some time after splashdown.[6] USS Intrepid recovered the craft and crew. The Gemini III mission was supported by 10,185 personnel, 126 aircraft and 27 ships from the United States Department of Defense.

Insignia

Fliteline Medallion

The mission insignia was not worn by the flight crew as a patch, like those from Gemini 5 onwards. The Gemini 3 The Molly Brown emblem was designed and minted on gold-plated, sterling silver, 1-inch (25 mm) medallions. The crew carried a number of these medallions into space to give to their families and friends. The same design was printed on the cover of Grissom's book Gemini!: A Personal Account of Man's Venture Into Space. Young was seen wearing the emblem as a patch, produced post-flight, on his flightsuit as late as 1981.

Spacecraft location

The spacecraft is on display within the Grissom Memorial of Spring Mill State Park, two miles east of Grissom's hometown of Mitchell, Indiana.

See also

References

  1. ^ McDowell, Jonathan. "SATCAT". Jonathan's Space Pages. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
  2. ^ a b "Gemini 3 (3)". Kennedy Space Center: Science, Technology, and Engineering. August 25, 2000. Archived from the original on March 4, 2012. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
  3. ^ NASA: Gemini 3
  4. ^ "Our Gemini Astronauts Tell Their Own Story". newspapers.com. Miami News. April 2, 1965. Retrieved April 1, 2023.
  5. ^ "NASA History: Detailed Biographies of Apollo I Crew - Gus Grissom". NASA. Retrieved January 20, 2009.
  6. ^ a b "Gemini III radio transcript on Spacelog". National Astronaut and Space Administration. April 1965. Archived from the original on 2014-10-26. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  7. ^ French, Francis and Burgess, Colin. "In the Shadow of the Moon". University of Nebraska Press, 2007, p. 11.
  8. ^ Hacker, Barton; Grimwood, James (1966). On the Shoulders of Titans. Washington D.C.: NASA. p. 236.

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
.

External links