 Ignition, high clock starts, 3-9-0, that looks good, flight. Roger, booster. Roger, clock starts. Field pressure running a little high. Roger. Roger, understand. How's it looking, guidance? It's looking good, flight. Roger. Slightly low, no problem. Roger, fighter, how about you for stage, thanks. Thanks, we're going for staging. Roger, Capcom, we're going for staging. Staging? Roger, staging. How's that thrust look, booster? That thrust is looking a little high, flight. Roger. Okay, no status check, booster. Go. Retro. Go. Fido. Go. Guidance. Guidance, you go. Stand by, one flight. Surgeon. Go. Econ. Go. GNC. Go. How do you stand, guidance? I go, flight. Roger, Capcom, we're go. Early shutdown. We have a Seaco here, flight. Roger. Head shut down. Flight follow, we had cutoff, standby. Roger, Fido. Stand by for IVIs. Red WI is counting over 300 feet per second. 72 and 95. 72 is 24. Flight auto, we're no-go. Roger, Capcom, we're no-go. Capcom, we're no-go. Roger, you are no-go, no-go. Retro, you got a time here? Roger, flight, area at Charlie, at 9 plus 2-0. Fall angle on the retro, 7 degrees. Recovery flight. Roger, we have more here. We're going for area at Charlie. We'll be retrofiring at 9 plus 20. Roger, flight. Can you give me some water and access times in that area, please? No swells, and your call sign rescue one, the destroyer is the low. Five, four, three, two, one, retrofire. Roger, fire one. Rocket two. This was not an actual Gemini mission. Nobody left the ground. Gemini did not abort. We have simply edited together an isolated launch with shots of the flight controllers simulating that launch. The flight was simulated from an adjacent room in the Mission Control Center, Houston, and like many other things in the space age, flight simulation is done by computers. The primary and backup crew for Gemini 8 will undergo 11 days of such simulated flights before launch day, March 16th. Early in the program, experts sit down and analyze the Gemini 8 flight. They know it is a three-day mission. Its primary purposes include rendezvous in space with an Agena target vehicle, the first docking in space, and a two-hour space walk by pilot David Scott. The experts then devise problems that could occur, some simple, some quite challenging. They feed these problems into a computer and sit back and see what happens, perhaps with a little glee. At any rate, the crew and the simulator and the controller at the console are given the problem. Both must respond correctly. About 90 problems will be run for the Gemini 8 mission. On the schedule are two days devoted to the Agena target vehicle, four days devoted to network simulations, and two days scheduled for running re-entry simulations, including emergency re-entries. Eleven days of problem solving. Most probably none of them would turn up during the flight. But if one should, the crew and the 5,000 people in the ground network that support these two men would be ready. Several days before Gemini 8 will leave the ground, the USS Boxer steams toward the primary recovery zone where the mission will normally end. It begins training its complement of officers and men in recovery operations. Instead of launching amphibious strike missions, the Boxer now launches helicopters for search and retrieval of astronauts. On board is the commander of the Western Atlantic Recovery Forces, known as Task Force 140.3. Two ships, six helicopters and six aircraft are assigned to this Task Force. All five man-Gemini flights to date have been recovered as planned in the primary zone. Still, 10 more ships, 54 aircraft and 5,000 additional men will be deployed at different stations around the world for recovery. There are nine other planned landing areas lying within the three major zones of the Eastern Atlantic, the Mid-Pacific and the Western Pacific. In the Western Pacific, the USS Leonard F. Mason, a destroyer, begins exercises on the retrieval of a border plate model of the Gemini spacecraft. The Mason will cover three landing areas within zone 3. It will be backed up by aircraft from Okinawa and Japan. The chief difference between the primary area where the Boxer is stationed and a secondary area such as this is the comprehensiveness of coverage. The number of aircraft, ships and recovery specialists on station. In addition, a special launch abort area covers the land mass and immediate offshore areas at Cape Kennedy. Recovery teams go out before the astronauts enter the spacecraft in case of an ejected abort from the launch pad or shortly after liftoff. There could be more extreme contingencies. The emergency might be such that a spacecraft could not land in a planned landing area. In a dire emergency, the command pilot might have to fire the retro rockets and come right down. Bare statistics come into play here. The world is 70% water and 30% land. The odds are strongly weighted toward a water landing. Aircraft are stationed at 12 points to locate the spacecraft in this emergency. Any commercial shipping in the area might then be called for assistance to pick up the astronauts. Fraters, oilers, tankers, any ship with heavy hoist equipment could also take the spacecraft aboard. If the crew comes down over land, they would use the ejection seats, leave the spacecraft and land by parachute. Astronauts have not only a complete survival kit to sustain them, but they are trained to live off the land, even desert and jungle. Whether Gemini comes down over water or land, recovery is planned and coordinated by a NASA team of specialists. They set up the requirements for a mission and work closely with the Department of Defense. DoD then commits the necessary ships and aircraft to do the job. The DoD manager for manned spacecraft support directs worldwide recovery forces. He is in contact with two main elements under his command, the Atlantic Recovery Control Center, Kate Kennedy, and the Pacific Recovery Control Center, Hawaii. The red telephone puts him into direct contact with the highest levels of the Department of Defense for further assistance. But all of this, the red telephone and the contingency aircraft off Pago Pago Island, South Pacific, seems remote on the 16th of March. The crew is entering their spacecraft for what has every sign of being a normal flight. At the same time, on Launch Complex 14, the Atlas Agena Count is only 25 minutes from liftoff. The Gemini mission is largely based on a successful orbit of the target vehicle. The Agena Count has no holds. Right on the nose at 10 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, the Atlas launch vehicle ignites. Atlas has three main propulsion engines which ignite at liftoff. Two are booster engines and one is a sustainer engine. The booster engines cut off first, some two minutes, 40 seconds into the flight. The sustainer engine then takes over and propels the Agena to an altitude of 654,190 feet. Two small Vernier engines on the Atlas continue to position the Agena properly in the later phases of launch. They cut off at five minutes, six seconds after liftoff. The Agena propulsion system then inserts the target vehicle into a circular orbit. Today, the flight plan calls for a circular orbit of 161 nautical miles. Something close to that would be acceptable. The Agena propulsion system can be started from the ground and a burn completed to change the orbit. But as the final figures come up to the flight dynamics officer, no in-flight burns will be needed. Agena has hit the planned circular orbit of 161 nautical miles. This is a good beginning for any rendezvous flight. The news is given the crew by the spacecraft communicator. Pilot Scott comes back with just what the doctor ordered. The flight director now calls for launch of Gemini-8 at 11.40 and 59 seconds eastern standard time. Offshore, the launch site recovery forces are fully deployed. They now can only wait like the rest of us. Flight director Hodge had requested 11.40 and 59 seconds. Gemini-8 goes into the clouds high above Cape Kennedy. As the spacecraft comes out of the clouds, an aerial chase plane picks it up for a close look at what it's like to ride as a spacecraft crew on top of a booster. After 50 seconds, the crew releases the restraints which are required for seat ejection. Gemini-8 was inserted into an orbit of 86 nautical miles by 146 nautical miles, very close to the planned values of 86 by 145 nautical miles. The launch site abort is the first contingency that has passed successfully. A carefully trained team has been released and returns to other duties. With two good orbits, target vehicle and spacecraft, Gemini-8 had a head start on rendezvous and docking. The maneuvers for rendezvous would be essentially the same as those performed by Gemini-6. So fast does the space program accelerate that rendezvous was the primary objective of Gemini-6 in December. But three months later, it is March and rendezvous almost seems routine. Everyone is focused more on docking. Everyone except those who fly the mission. Then you take things step by step. This is Gemini-controlled Houston. About two minutes ago, Neil Armstrong called in over to Nanna Reeve and he was able to confirm at that time that radar lock had been established. Roger, do you have solid radar lock on with the Agena over? Roger, thank you. Sounds good. After radar lock on, the crew will circularize their orbit inside that of the target vehicle. Meantime, the ground does not sit still, idly waiting for something to happen. Recovery forces are constantly shifting in response to the orbit of the spacecraft, changing station according to a detailed recovery plan. The USS Cochran, a destroyer in the mid-Pacific, takes position for a 4-4 recovery, that is recovery in the fourth revolution in zone 4. Zone 3 will be the planned landing zone for the next three revolutions, for five, six, and seven. After that, Gemini-8 will not be over a planned landing area again until the tenth revolution, then it passes over the eastern Atlantic zone. If an emergency occurs in the eighth or ninth revolution, the spacecraft will land in a contingency area. Recovery is supported there by aircraft and available commercial shipping. But right now, much of this seems academic. The crew has other business. Roger, I understand. Visual, Agena, 76 miles. Hello, Houston. This is Gemini-8. First station keeping on your Agena at about 150 degrees. How do you go, partner? You've done it, boy. You've done it, boy. Look at that. Need to die full? You'll see everything in that cellar. Stand at the jaw maneuver. It looks like that nominal time. So they're going to give you that time to check your old status display for you. How about those lucky guys are just jumping up and down? Yes, captain's on. We are looking at the left or command pilot's window as the station keeping exercise with Agena begins. Gemini-8 had no difficulty in maneuvering in the vicinity of the Agena. The onboard film, as in past flights, was at six frames per second and is being projected at four times that speed. After station keeping for 35 minutes, command pilot Armstrong begins to move in closer to Agena, preparing his final docking approach. Both vehicles are traveling at approximately 17,500 miles per hour. We are looking at the target docking adapter end of the Agena. The command pilot makes a docking approach by applying very small thrust increases to Gemini-8. The maximum velocity difference between the two vehicles at docking will be about one foot per second. When the command pilot is about two feet from the Agena, he will pause until he gets a go from the Rosenaut Victor. The double check has been completed. Okay, go ahead with your memory compare. Roger. Let's know what you get out of that. That was it. Two vehicles docked for the first time in space. Shortly after docking, the crew was slightly surprised when Jim Lovell, the spacecraft communicator, checked in with this caution. It was a routine check. You punch 400 into the onboard computer. This automatically turns off the attitude control system of the Agena. If the problem is Agena control, that ends it. The Agena control system of the Agena is the same as the Agena control system of the Agena. The Agena control system of the Agena is the same as the Agena control system of the Agena. It automatically turns off the attitude control system of the Agena. If the problem is Agena control, that ends it. Minutes later, Gemini 8 passed out of communications range beyond the island of Madagascar. The crew was preparing to begin a series of docking exercises. And the Mason was between stations. It had left 5-3 and was headed for a 6-3 recovery zone. Since we were in the 5th revolution, the retrofire experts were routinely updating their retrofire times. These are usually planned for 6 revolutions ahead and stored in the onboard computer. It was about this time that Jim Lovell almost qualified as the space prophet of the year. For 7 hours after liftoff and 27 minutes of normal docking, an excessive yaw and roll motion occurred. The crew punched up 400, but the trouble was not in the Agena. Unable to find an immediate answer, Mr. Armstrong undocked. The roll rate continued to build up, reaching about 1 revolution per second. Struggling to regain control, Mr. Armstrong was forced to fire the reentry thrusters and gradually reasserted control over the spacecraft. Neither crewmen experienced any loss of orientation. Gemini never approached a critical structural strain. Once the reentry thrusters are fired, there is the possibility of fuel leakage in orbit, leaking a fuel essential for reentry. The flight had been highly successful through 27 minutes of docking, but final action rests squarely on the shoulders of this man, the flight director. A decision came quickly. Fuel readings were too low. Abort. That was the first decision. Others follow. Where do we recover? The stream of facts flow into flight director Hodges' console. Exact orbital position. Weather in the Pacific. Available daylight in recovery zones. And the whereabouts of the USS Mason. A destroyer which had repetitiously practiced picking up a boilerplate model of Gemini in the waters of the Pacific came into its own. Millions of people suddenly learned that it existed. With Gemini stabilized in flight, there were several advantages to delaying reentry for another orbit. The retrofire officer would have an exact reading on retrofire times, and the crew could prepare for reentry, and aircraft could be on station at Splashdown. This is the way it would be. The NASA coordinator leans over toward the DOD console. We want to recover in 7-3. The DOD manager immediately punches the button which puts him in contact with Pacific recovery control Hawaii. Hawaii alerts the captain of the Mason. He swings around and heads for 7-3, making 30 knots. Search aircraft scramble from Okinawa. They will be over the predicted landing point 10 minutes before the spacecraft splashes down. As Gemini 8 begins its 7th and final revolution, weather is excellent in the Splashdown area. The crew is busy. The command pilot has time for only this brief reflection. I'd like to argue with them about going home, but I don't know how we can. That was all. Gemini 8 sweeps past Ascension Island. Retrofire will come up over Cano, Nigeria. Air-to-ground communications are broken, but the rockets fire right on the nose. The crew begins their descent through the atmosphere. This is the view they will see for a long time. The high peaks of the Himalayas. After these forbidding mountains, the sweep of the Pacific will look friendly and hospitable. Waiting for Gemini 8 are rescue aircraft circling in the landing area, ready to pick up an electronic signal from the spacecraft. Two aircraft from Okinawa were originally assigned here, but five others were quickly alerted and added to the recovery team. When Gemini 8 is only three miles away, a C-54 catches sight of it on the main landing parachute. After that, landing is almost routine, and Gemini 8 landed within two miles of the predicted impact point. The first para-rescue swimmer in the water is Airman 1st Class Neil. Airman Neil is a veteran of combat rescue work and a good man to have on your side. He was quickly followed by two other rescue swimmers. It was early afternoon in the Pacific, but almost eleven o'clock at night in the Atlantic where the USS Boxer had waited. The mason, three hours away at splashdown, reached the area at 3.17 p.m. local time. Crew and spacecraft, both in good shape, were soon aboard. Within 72 hours, NASA scientists would pin down the source of trouble. A short circuit in the wiring of the number 8 yaw thruster had caused it to fire erratically. The possibility of this failure recurring is slight, but a master switch has now been added to the Gemini spacecraft. The crew can throw this switch and cut off all power to the attitude thrusters in any future flight. Once the difficulty was corrected, we could take time out to realize that Gemini 8 had brought us closer to lunar exploration by demonstrating the first successful dock in space. Gemini 8 also gave many of us our first look at men like the three young rescue swimmers, Airman Neil and Moore and Staff Sergeant Hewitt, as well as the captain and crew of the mason. Men who are there in every flight on remote stations doing their duty and doing it well. It was these men who sighted Gemini 8 on the parachute and took the crew and spacecraft safely aboard the mason. At that point, we knew that the long months of training and the many simulations and the close interplay between NASA and the Department of Defense were sound. The mission is ended. The control room is empty, but it will soon fill up again as simulations begin for the next flight. We had achieved our first docking in space. We experienced our first orbital abort. In both cases, Gemini 8 came through with flying colors.