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Puzzle, Swan Cottage, Day 8. Plus Gemini VI [1]
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Date: 2025-09-03
Puzzle Day 8
Finally. Progress!
This is not my favorite. But it’s loaded with symbolism. If we ever get to a mission that lacks story we’ll go deep on badges.
Gemini VI
A quick recap for those of you new to the series or if you missed the last diary.
Gemini VI’s successful launch came after Gemini VII. Hence the back to future chronology here. I’m gonna assume you’re up to speed on all that backstory.
If not check out www.dailykos.com/... first.
Then again, it contains spoilers regarding mission 6.
Jeeze Louise! I am so indecisive.
Whatever you choose, the saga of Gemini 6 is fraught with false starts and ultimately successful improvisation.
The concept for rendezvous and docking from NASA 1962. www.nasa.gov/...
Gemini VI’s mission goal was to prove rendezvous and docking techniques which Apollo would need to utilize. To do that an Atlas Agena B would be launched 1 hour ahead of Gemini VI which then would rendezvous and dock with it. Sort of like the image above.
Easy Peasy. Right?
Right.
Your eyes do not deceive. This is not a Gemini. It’s an Atlas-Agena prepping to launch.
The Atlas-Agena.
Buckle in. We are gonna’ talk hardware. Speeds and feeds. Heavy metal. Gear head stuff. For a wee bit anyways.
As you may have guessed the Atlas-Agena target vehicle is an Atlas rocket combined with an Agena second stage.
Let’s talk Atlas first.
Atlas is a Rocket Family that had its start in the late 1940’s as a ballistic missile project. It was cancelled due to budget cuts (some things never change) and because the weight of an atomic bomb made carrying it atop a ballistic missile impossible.
Budgets. Physics.
Budgets, however, changed around the time of the Korean War and start of the Cold War. Physics did not change, but atomic weapons were lighter.
Project Atlas was restarted.
Atlas had a couple of very unique features. It was extremely lightweight. Its skin was thin stainless steel. How thin? .04 inch thick. Thats between 1/32 and 1/16 of an inch. 1 mm for our international readers. That’s like really thin.
Its fuel tanks were also light weight and needed to be filled with fuel to give the entire rocket structure its strength and rigidity.
Think of a balloon, in particular one used by entertainers which is shaped like a tube that is twisted to make dogs etc. Before it’s inflated it has no form or strength. Once inflated though it does. If it (balloon or Atlas fuel tank) springs a leak and loses pressure though…this happens:
When empty of fuel the Atlas tanks had to be “inflated” with nitrogen gas so that it wouldn’t collapse, as you witnessed above.
The effort to cut weight also led to it not being painted.
Leading to corrosion.
Which led to:
Atlas is a Rocket. That WD-40 in your garage? Yes it was first used on Atlas. You are one step closer to
being a rocket scientist/engineer then you knew. Your welcome. www.wd40.com/...
Yes.
WD-40 was first used to prevent corrosion on Atlas rockets.
Can I just say these tidbits are so much fun to discover?
OK back to the second unique feature of the Atlas. (The first being extremely lightweight construction)
The Atlas had two booster rocket engines that were jettisoned in flight. This apparently was because the fuel mix (kerosene and liquid oxygen) did not always ignite and ….
Well I don’t understand why the jettisoning booster rockets helped with ignition problems but the internet says so.
Must be true.
Hey, don’t look at me! i’m not a rocket scientist! or a historian!
I digress. Again. Back to the subject at hand.
The rocket we are writing about: Atlas.
The Atlas rocket family from inception to 2007. The arrow pointing to Atlas D as used in Gemini VI. Credit - © Mark Wade web.archive.org/… markup mine
In general terms, Atlas D-based space launch vehicles were classified as Space Launch Vehicle-3 (SLV-3). However, they have historically been better known by the Atlas name in combination with the name of associated upper stages or mission assignments. These variants include the Atlas-Able, Atlas-Agena A, Atlas-Centaur A, Atlas-Centaur B, Atlas-Centaur C and Mercury-Atlas. www.spaceline.org/… bolding mine
Academic update: So since my first draft of this diary I bought a diploma in rocket science (the internet is cool like that) and now understand that the jettisoning of the boosters served two important purposes. Let’s look closer at an Atlas rocket.
This is an absolutely awesome drawing. it’s a masterpiece. Trust me on this. I used draw technical stuff for Raytheon. In other words, I am a professional.
Hats off to John A Marsden who drew it for Flight International Magazine. (Article archive no longer available…so no link)
Atlas is referred to as being a 1 ½ stage rocket.
In most Rockets that have multiple stages, the first stage fires and provides lift until it separates from the second stage which has its own engine and fuel supply. The second stage then fires and finishes lifting the payload as the first stage falls back to earth and burns up.* Those are referred to as being 2 stage rockets.
( *OK. Burning up is not true anymore since some modern first stages can land them selves. But it was true then.)
Atlas is different it fires all three engines at once. And this is an advantage because if one or more engine fails to ignite the mission can be aborted at the gantry before liftoff. Nothing is lost. The failure is fixed, and the payload lives another day.
Perhaps literally.
In the case of a 2 stage rocket if the second stage motor fails to ignite — it’s not a good day for anyone.
There is a second reason this done. It saves weight. Twice. Once since the boosters share some of the first stage structure and again when jettisoned. And as you know, Atlas was all about saving weight.
If you are having trouble visualizing those booster engines being jettisoned while the remaining engine continues (I did) this Lego model might help:
This is a suprisingly accurate Lego model! Hats off to Reddit user kehu05 www.reddit.com/...
The Atlas has a long history of boosting many dozens of satellites and planetary explorers ….but we need to stick to its relationship to Gemini VI and Agena…which lead us to..
Agena target vehicle
This is a nice 3D drawing. More my speed then the previous masterpiece.
Note that Agena is not just a second stage that is delivering payload to a higher orbit. It’s actually a spacecraft. It has attitude control. Its main engine can be restarted. In this configuration it has a docking module .
Put the Agena atop an Atlas and you get:
Ikea assembly instructions for an Atlas Agena.
Ok. That was a lot of Atlas info and I’ve yet to talk much about Agena-B, which, believe it or not, is worthy of some serious word count.
Do not lose sleep over Agena-B‘s absence. It will return in the very near future and it will get the speeds and feeds, heavy metal treatment then.
Assuming I don’t get side tracked. But when has that ever happened?
Back to the Gemini VI mission
The launch of the Atlas Agena Target Vehicle, which was the target for Gemini 6 to dock with, looked good. Perfect actually.
But. Always that darn but…
immediately after the Agena's engine fired at the six-minute mark in the flight, telemetry was lost. A catastrophic failure apparently caused the vehicle to explode, as Range Safety was tracking multiple pieces of debris falling into the Atlantic Ocean. After 50 minutes, the Gemini launch was canceled. en.wikipedia.org/… bolding mine
That is a fly in the ointment. Can’t dock with Agena if it is down range in the Atlantic. The NYT headline sums up the moment:
Yes. I used the same headline in the last diary. I promise I won’t plagiarize myself again. Knowingly.
Will Gemini 6 become Gemini 6A ?
This is when the idea of launching Gemini 6 while Gemini 7 was in flight became a thing. None of this was part of anyone’s planning. The idea to have the two Gemini capsules rendezvous meant stressing the whole system. Step back and consider that within the two week window that Gemini 7 would be orbiting Gemini 6 would need to be staged and launched. It was not a given that was even possible in the time available. Would the launch pad be ready in such a short time? All the processes, people and logistics of a single mission would be doubled. Mission Control would have double the tracking and telemetry to deal with. The planning for both missions had to change, albeit somewhat less for Gemini 7 which was more or less a passive target.
The effort would mean an enormous course change for an enormous number of people. It would be risky.
And Yes. Gemini 6A became a thing.
Gemini 6A
Have I mentioned astronauts yet?
Nope.
Best rectify that.
Stafford left. Schirra right.
Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford were the commander and pilot of Gemini 6 whom had had to dejectedly* disembark when their Agena-B target vehicle ended up in the Atlantic rather then in orbit, and were now back in the ejection seats of their Gemini 6A capsule about to launch and rendezvous with Frank Borman and Jim Lovell in space.
*(were they dejected? Dunno really. I would have been)
Gemini 6A launch
The countdown was perfect. The engines ignited. And then:
Nothing. Nada. Zip
An automatic abort.
While the above video is rather calm, perhaps anti-climactic, it does allude to the danger while the fuel depressurization completes. What it doesn’t allude to is what an abort means in the capsule. Keep in mind once ignition occurs you are in flight. Once the mission clock starts in the capsule, you’re in flight. If an automatic abort occurs while in flight the engines are shut down and you will fall back to earth. Whether you fall a 1,000 feet or a few dozen you are almost certainly going to be fatally injured.
You are, after all, sitting atop a large amount of rocket fuel.
Hence the ejection seats which are manually controlled by the commander.
Wally Schirra.
He did not pull the trigger.
By rights, planning, and instinct he could have, should have ejected. But in the split second when he had a chance to eject he correctly intuited that the rocket had not actually lifted off. That ejection would be more dangerous than sitting tight. That the capsule and mission could be saved.
He was right.
Training, in the ocean, for capsule egress. Wally Schirra.
Wally Schirra may have been the perfect person to make that instantaneous decision. Consider unique experiences of his life leading to that moment.
His father was an aviator by way of Canada. Joining the Canadian Air Force and seeing combat over Germany in WWI. Upon the end of WWI he returned to the US and barnstormed across the country.
His wing walker?
That was his wife, Wally’s mother.
If coolness under pressure is heritable Wally had a double dose.
Schirra himself transferred from college to the naval academy when Pearl Harbor occurred, serving on a couple of ships as the war ended. He went to training to become an aviator and then graduated to flying jets. He was serving as a carrier based combat pilot when the Korean War broke out and transferred to the Air Force so he could see more combat. He had his wish flying 90 combat missions and downing two enemy jets in 8 months.
He returned to the Navy where he became a test pilot.
He was a Mercury astronaut and was one of the very few people who knew what an actual liftoff felt like.
Could there have been better preparation for that moment when he made the life and death decision to not eject?
The "off-the-pad" escape mode for an aborted Gemini mission. (Charts presented by K. Hecht, "Project Gemini Familiarization Briefing," July 9-10, 1962, unpaged. From the quarterly progress report on ejection seats. www.nasa.gov/...
Tom Stafford I plan to talk about in a future diary. But I will introduce you to him using his Bio from the Press Kit NASA provided to, well, to the Press:
There is a lot of archival documentation from NASA. however it’s often really hard to find on government web sites. Fortunately there are history/space sites that have collections that are indexed better. Like this one. tothemoon.im-ldi.com/…
Stafford had this to say in his oral history about Schirra’s decision to not eject:
…it turns out what we would have seen, had we had to do that, [referring to ejecting] would have been two Roman candles going out, because we were 15 or 16 psi, pure oxygen, soaking in that for an hour and a half. You remember the tragic fire we had at the Cape. (...) Jesus, with that fire going off and that, it would have burned the suits. Everything was soaked in oxygen. So thank God. That was another thing: NASA never tested it under the conditions that they would have had if they would have had to eject. They did have some tests at China Lake where they had a simulated mock-up of Gemini capsule, but what they did is fill it full of nitrogen. They didn't have it filled full of oxygen in the sled test they had.[11] en.wikipedia.org/… italics denotes my editorial comments
Fortunately not only was the decision to hang tight the right one for Schirra and Stafford’s safety, it allowed the engineers to root cause and resolve the issue quickly enough to allow a Gemini 6A launch within the short window that still allowed rendezvous with Gemini 7.
Gemini 6A actually launches!
Lift off! Third times a charm and all that. Gemini VI atop a Titan rocket
In Space. At last.
Schirra and Stafford caught up with Gemini VII on Gemini 6’s 4th orbit, just 5 hours after liftoff.
Our friends at Wikipedia will fill you in on the highlights:
The burns had only used 112 lbs. (51 kilograms) of propellant on Gemini 6A, leaving plenty for some fly-arounds. During the next 270 minutes, the crews moved as close as one foot (30 centimeters), talking over the radio. At one stage the spacecraft were station keeping so well that neither crew had to make any burns for 20 minutes. Schirra said that because there is no turbulence in space, "I was amazed at my ability to maneuver. I did a fly-around inspection of Gemini 7, literally flying rings around it, and I could move to within inches of it in perfect confidence".[13] As the crew sleep periods approached, Gemini 6A made a separation burn and slowly drifted more than 30 kilometers (19 mi) from Gemini 7. This ensured that there would not be any accidental collisions while the astronauts slept.[14] en.wikipedia.org/...
Schirra also was the first to put a bumper sticker (of a sort) on his capsule:
Beat Army…. In the window of Gemini 6. As seen from Gemini 7
Gemini 7 as viewed from Gemini 6A
The next day Gemini 6 returned to earth but not before Schirra reporting on an UFO (Santa Claus) and performing Jingle Bells on a harmonica and bells. The first time musical instruments had been played in space.
Compared to Gemini 7 the mission was over in the blink of an eye.
Mission duration: 1 day, 1 hour, 51 minutes, 24 seconds Distance travelled: 694,415 kilometers (374,954 nautical miles) Orbits completed: 16
Splashdown
Gemini 6 splashdown was accurate —only 11 miles from the intended location and included a several firsts…..
Channel 13's mobile unit is about to be lifted onto the deck of the aircraft carrier Randolph. (1961)
Some of will note the USS Wasp was the recovery ship for Gemini 6/7. And the year is wrong. And you’d be correct. See the next image and caption big13.com
Ok a confession.
WTVT channel 13 WAS on the wasp for Gemini 6/7. There are photos of their camera man. (Boring!) But this very cool mobile rig (Not boring!) may not have been. As best I can tell it was used on some (all?) Mercury flights and Gemini up to mission 5. Oddly the (unofficial) web site claims Gemini 5 was the first live broadcast which is clearly wrong. So I dunno. Maybe they meant this rig was on the first live broadcast and just got the mission number wrong.
In any case this is a way to cool to not include it here! Twice. Cause I like it.
big13.com
It was the first time TV coverage was live — using a satellite uplink for the Black & White signal to be beamed back to the studio where anchors spoke to what they were witnessing.
This, for me is such an iconic image. The vastness of the ocean. The sky. The capsule trailing green marker die while the copter maintains station. An aircraft barely visible against the sky. The USS Wasp.
It also appears to be the first time the astronauts left the capsule after it was hoisted aboard the recovery ship. In this case the aircraft carrier USS Wasp.
What ? Not hoisted onto a helicopter for a ride back? Apparently not. Disembarking on the deck of the recovery ship appears to be a first, unless it was done during mercury program.
And it was the first time two missions completed back to back-allowing for a photo like this one:
Two random thoughts. First, this must be the only time two capsules sat on a recovery ship at the same time. Maybe. I didn’t actually research it. Seems likely though! Also the covered windows look like the eyes on a cartoonish mouse. Or pig. And now that image is in my head I cannot unsee it. You?
Your welcome.
in case you missed it
previous posts in the series:
And a future map:
This screen shot was the plan. We have deviated. Call it an aspirational plan.
Updated: fixed the link to big 13. Added a few edits which somehow missed the last save before publishing
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