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75-670: Shortly after the launch of STS-9 , On November 28, 1983 Owen Garriott (W5LFL) became the first amateur radio operator active in space. Garriott had already flown on Skylab 3 , but did not operate radio equipment on that trip. On STS-9, he used a handheld 2-meter radio, provided by the Motorola Amateur Radio Club in Fort Lauderdale, to talk to his mother, senator Barry Goldwater (K7UGA), King Hussein of Jordan (JY1), and many others. Garriott made approximately 300 calls and convinced NASA that amateur radio

150-463: A solid-fuel rocket , but instead used aircraft-style ejection seats . The tower was heavy and complicated, and NASA engineers reasoned that they could do away with it as the Titan II's hypergolic propellants would burn immediately on contact. A Titan II booster explosion had a smaller blast effect and flame than on the cryogenically fueled Atlas and Saturn. Ejection seats were sufficient to separate

225-504: A " Big Gemini " that could have been used to shuttle up to 12 astronauts to the planned space stations in the Apollo Applications Project (AAP). The only AAP project funded was Skylab (The first American space station) – which used existing spacecraft and hardware – thereby eliminating the need for Big Gemini. The constellation for which the project was named is commonly pronounced / ˈ dʒ ɛ m ɪ n aɪ / ,

300-602: A "pilot's spacecraft" due to its assortment of jet fighter-like features, in no small part due to Gus Grissom's influence over the design, and it was at this point where the US crewed space program clearly began showing its superiority over that of the Soviet Union with long duration flight, rendezvous, and extravehicular capability. The Soviet Union during this period was developing the Soyuz spacecraft intended to take cosmonauts to

375-430: A 39-bit word composed of three 13-bit "syllables". All numeric data was 26-bit two's-complement integers (sometimes used as fixed-point numbers ), either stored in the first two syllables of a word or in the accumulator . Instructions (always with a 4-bit opcode and 9 bits of operand) could go in any syllable. Unlike Mercury, Gemini used in-flight radar and an artificial horizon , similar to those used in

450-487: A McDonnell building which held their Gemini 9 capsule in St. Louis. The backup crew of Stafford and Cernan was then moved up to the new prime crew of Gemini 9A. Lovell and Aldrin were moved from being the backup crew of Gemini 10 to be the backup crew of Gemini 9. This cleared the way through the crew rotation for Lovell and Aldrin to become the prime crew of Gemini 12. Along with the deaths of Grissom, White, and Roger Chaffee in

525-469: A NASA report to the US Congress estimating the costs for Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo (through the first crewed Moon landing) included $ 1.2834 billion for Gemini: $ 797.4 million for spacecraft, $ 409.8 million for launch vehicles, and $ 76.2 million for support. A number of detailed Gemini models and mockups are on display: McDonnell Aircraft, the main contractor for Mercury and Gemini, was also one of

600-601: A POCC. Moreover, the TDRS-1 satellite, now fully operational, was able to relay significant amounts of data through its ground terminal to the POCC. During orbiter orientation, four hours before re-entry, one of the flight control computers crashed when the Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters were fired. A few minutes later, a second crashed in a similar fashion, but was successfully rebooted. Young delayed

675-452: A Retro module and an Equipment module. The Retro module contained four solid-fuel TE-M-385 Star-13 E retrorockets, each spherical in shape except for its rocket nozzle, which were structurally attached to two beams that reached across the diameter of the retro module, crossing at right angles in the center. Re-entry began with the retrorockets firing one at a time. Abort procedures at certain periods during lift-off would cause them to fire at

750-485: A crew of two. He was previously the chief aerodynamicist on Avro Canada 's CF-105 Arrow fighter interceptor program. Chamberlin joined NASA along with 25 senior Avro engineers after cancellation of the Canadian Arrow program, and became head of the U.S. Space Task Group's engineering division in charge of Gemini. The prime contractor was McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, which was also the prime contractor for

825-725: A detachable Adapter Module behind the Reentry Module which would burn up on reentry. A major design improvement in Gemini was to locate all internal spacecraft systems in modular components, which could be independently tested and replaced when necessary, without removing or disturbing other already tested components. Many components in the capsule itself were reachable through their own small access doors. Unlike Mercury, Gemini used completely solid-state electronics, and its modular design made it easy to repair. Gemini's emergency launch escape system did not use an escape tower powered by

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900-469: 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

975-549: A horizontal landing. Big Gemini (or "Big G") was another proposal by McDonnell Douglas made in August 1969. It was intended to provide large-capacity, all-purpose access to space, including missions that ultimately used Apollo or the Space Shuttle. The study was performed to generate a preliminary definition of a logistic spacecraft derived from Gemini that would be used to resupply an orbiting space station. Land-landing at

1050-432: A preselected site and refurbishment and reuse were design requirements. Two baseline spacecraft were defined: a nine-man minimum modification version of the Gemini B called Min-Mod Big G and a 12-man advanced concept, having the same exterior geometry but with new, state-of-the-art subsystems, called Advanced Big G. Three launch vehicles- Saturn IB , Titan IIIM , and Saturn INT-20 (S-IC/S-IVB) were investigated for use with

1125-481: A result, Columbia would not fly at all during 1984–1985. Project Gemini Project Gemini ( IPA : / ˈ dʒ ɛ m ɪ n i / ) was the second United States human spaceflight program to fly. Conducted after the first American crewed space program, Project Mercury , while the Apollo program was still in early development, Gemini was conceived in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried

1200-457: A strip of metal which ran between the twin hatches. This design was ultimately dropped, and parachutes were used to make a sea landing as in Mercury. The capsule was suspended at an angle closer to horizontal, so that a side of the heat shield contacted the water first. This eliminated the need for the landing bag cushion used in the Mercury capsule. The adapter module in turn was separated into

1275-631: A two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual astronauts flew low Earth orbit (LEO) missions during 1965 and 1966. Gemini's objective was the development of space travel techniques to support the Apollo mission to land astronauts on the Moon . In doing so, it allowed the United States to catch up and overcome the lead in human spaceflight capability the Soviet Union had obtained in

1350-668: A two-man spacecraft, then designated Mercury Mark II, at a NASA retreat at Wallops Island in March 1961. Scale models were shown in July 1961 at the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation 's offices in St. Louis. After Apollo was chartered to land men on the Moon by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961, it became evident to NASA officials that a follow-on to the Mercury program was required to develop certain spaceflight capabilities in support of Apollo. NASA approved

1425-804: Is fill it full of nitrogen. They didn't have it filled full of oxygen in the sled test they had. Gemini was the first astronaut-carrying spacecraft to include an onboard computer, the Gemini Guidance Computer , to facilitate management and control of mission maneuvers. This computer, sometimes called the Gemini Spacecraft On-Board Computer (OBC), was very similar to the Saturn Launch Vehicle Digital Computer . The Gemini Guidance Computer weighed 58.98 pounds (26.75 kg). Its core memory had 4096 addresses , each containing

1500-640: Is heard on flight recordings pronouncing the spacecraft's call sign "Jeh-mih-nee 4", and the NASA pronunciation is used in the 2018 film First Man . The Apollo program was conceived in early 1960 as a three-man spacecraft to follow Project Mercury . Jim Chamberlin , the head of engineering at the Space Task Group (STG), was assigned in February 1961 to start working on a bridge program between Mercury and Apollo. He presented two initial versions of

1575-658: Is like in space. Students also have had the opportunity to communicate via video when the shuttles have had suitable equipment. Teachers have found out about how to link their classes with the SAREX program through the Amateur Radio in Space Guide distributed by NASA. An amateur operator license is needed before operating an amateur station. The license can be obtained from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission 's (FCC) Amateur Radio Service. No special SAREX license

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1650-504: Is required for operation, but certain regulations come into play for space communications. STS-9 STS-9 (also referred to Spacelab 1 ) was the ninth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the sixth mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia . Launched on November 28, 1983, the ten-day mission carried the first Spacelab laboratory module into orbit. STS-9 was also the last time the original STS numbering system

1725-472: The Agena Target Vehicle (ATV), with its own rocket engine which could be used to perform greater orbit changes. Early short-duration missions had their electrical power supplied by batteries; later endurance missions used the first fuel cells in crewed spacecraft. Gemini was in some regards more advanced than Apollo because the latter program began almost a year earlier. It became known as

1800-405: The Apollo spacecraft . The original intention for Gemini was to land on solid ground instead of at sea, using a Rogallo wing rather than a parachute, with the crew seated upright controlling the forward motion of the craft. To facilitate this, the airfoil did not attach just to the nose of the craft, but to an additional attachment point for balance near the heat shield. This cord was covered by

1875-783: The Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Payload Operations Control Center (POCC), which was then located at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Texas . Funding for Spacelab 1 was provided by the ESA. After Columbia's return from STS-5 in November 1982, it received several modifications and changes in preparation for STS-9. Most of these changes were intended to support the Spacelab module and crew, such as

1950-530: The Project Mercury capsule. Astronaut Gus Grissom was heavily involved in the development and design of the Gemini spacecraft . What other Mercury astronauts dubbed "Gusmobile" was so designed around Grissom's 5'6" body that, when NASA discovered in 1963 that 14 of 16 astronauts would not fit in the spacecraft, the interior had to be redesigned. Grissom wrote in his posthumous 1968 book Gemini! that

2025-840: The " Mercury Seven ", " The New Nine ", and " The Fourteen ". During the program, three astronauts died in air crashes during training, including both members of the prime crew for Gemini 9. The backup crew flew this mission. Gemini was robust enough that the United States Air Force planned to use it for the Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL) program, which was later canceled. Gemini's chief designer, Jim Chamberlin , also made detailed plans for cislunar and lunar landing missions in late 1961. He believed Gemini spacecraft could fly in lunar operations before Project Apollo, and cost less. NASA's administration did not approve those plans. In 1969, Lukas Bingham proposed

2100-487: The Apollo program. Some of the Advanced Gemini proposals used "off-the-shelf" Gemini spacecraft, unmodified from the original program, while others featured modifications to allow the spacecraft to carry more crew, dock with space stations, visit the Moon, and perform other mission objectives. Other modifications considered included the addition of wings or a parasail to the spacecraft, in order to enable it to make

2175-519: The Atlas' liquid oxygen/RP-1. However, the Titan had considerable difficulty being man-rated due to early problems with pogo oscillation . The launch vehicle used a radio guidance system that was unique to launches from Cape Kennedy. Deke Slayton , as director of flight crew operations, had primary responsibility for assigning crews for the Gemini program. Each flight had a primary crew and backup crew, and

2250-541: The GPCs. Switching the vehicle to the BFS from normal flight control can happen relatively instantaneously, and that particular GPC running the BFS could also be affected by the same failure due to the soldering defect. If such a failure occurred, switching the vehicle back to normal flight control software on multiple GPCs from a single GPC running BFS takes a lot longer, in essence leaving the vehicle without any control at all during

2325-534: The Gemini capsule, the first of which was delivered in 1963. The spacecraft was 18 feet 5 inches (5.61 m) long and 10 feet (3.0 m) wide, with a launch weight varying from 7,100 to 8,350 pounds (3,220 to 3,790 kg). The Gemini crew capsule (referred to as the Reentry Module) was essentially an enlarged version of the Mercury capsule. Unlike Mercury, the retrorockets , electrical power, propulsion systems, oxygen, and water were located in

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2400-411: The Gemini program. William C. Schneider, Deputy Director of Manned Space Flight for Mission Operations served as mission director on all Gemini flights beginning with Gemini 6A. Guenter Wendt was a McDonnell engineer who supervised launch preparations for both the Mercury and Gemini programs and would go on to do the same when the Apollo program launched crews. His team was responsible for completion of

2475-500: The Gemini program: Rendezvous in orbit is not a straightforward maneuver. Should a spacecraft increase its speed to catch up with another, the result is that it goes into a higher and slower orbit and the distance thereby increases. The right procedure is to go to a lower orbit first and which increases relative speed, and then approach the target spacecraft from below and decrease orbital speed to meet it. To practice these maneuvers, special rendezvous and docking simulators were built for

2550-491: The Gemini spacecraft for military applications, such as crude observation of the ground (no specialized reconnaissance camera could be carried) and practicing making rendezvous with suspicious satellites. This project was called Blue Gemini . The USAF did not like the fact that Gemini would have to be recovered by the US Navy, so they intended for Blue Gemini eventually to use the airfoil and land on three skids, carried over from

2625-865: The Gemini-Titan II launch vehicles. Data and experience operating the Titans was of value to both the U.S. Air Force and NASA. The USAF serial numbers assigned to the Gemini-Titan launch vehicles are given in the tables above. Fifteen Titan IIs were ordered in 1962 so the serial is "62-12XXX", but only "12XXX" is painted on the Titan II. The order for the last three of the 15 launch vehicles was canceled on July 30, 1964, and they were never built. Serial numbers were, however, assigned to them prospectively: 12568 - GLV-13; 12569 - GLV-14; and 12570 - GLV-15. From 1962 to 1967, Gemini cost $ 1.3 billion in 1967 dollars ($ 9.07 billion in 2023 ). In January 1969,

2700-542: The Moon, but political and technical problems began to get in the way, leading to the ultimate end of their crewed lunar program. The Titan II debuted in 1962 as the Air Force's second-generation ICBM to replace the Atlas. By using hypergolic fuels, it could be stored longer and be easily readied for launch in addition to being a simpler design with fewer components. The only caveat was the propellant mix ( nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine ) were extremely toxic compared to

2775-458: The Space Shuttle, which included two journeys to the Moon and making him the most experienced space traveler to date. Young, who also commanded Columbia on its maiden voyage STS-1 , was the first person to fly the same space vehicle into orbit more than once. STS-9 marked the only time that two pre-Shuttle era astronaut veterans (Garriott and Young) would fly on the same Space Shuttle mission. STS-9

2850-456: The addition of a tunnel connecting the Spacelab to the orbiter's airlock, and additional provisions for the mission's six crew members, such as a galley and sleeping bunks. Columbia also received the more powerful Space Shuttle Main Engines introduced with Challenger , which were rated for 104% maximum thrust; its original main engines were later refurbished for use with Atlantis , which

2925-552: The approximate size of a fireball produced by an exploding launch vehicle and from this he gauged that the Titan II would produce a much smaller explosion, thus the spacecraft could get away with ejection seats. Maxime Faget , the designer of the Mercury LES, was on the other hand less-than-enthusiastic about this setup. Aside from the possibility of the ejection seats seriously injuring the astronauts, they would also only be usable for about 40 seconds after liftoff, by which point

3000-490: The astronauts from a malfunctioning launch vehicle. At higher altitudes, where the ejection seats could not be used, the astronauts would return to Earth inside the spacecraft, which would separate from the launch vehicle. The main proponent of using ejection seats was Chamberlin, who had never liked the Mercury escape tower and wished to use a simpler alternative that would also reduce weight. He reviewed several films of Atlas and Titan II ICBM failures, which he used to estimate

3075-585: The astronauts. The Gemini-Titan II launch vehicle was adapted by NASA from the U.S. Air Force Titan II ICBM . (Similarly, the Mercury-Atlas launch vehicle had been adapted from the USAF Atlas missile .) The Gemini-Titan II rockets were assigned Air Force serial numbers, which were painted in four places on each Titan II (on opposite sides on each of the first and second stages). USAF crews maintained Launch Complex 19 and prepared and launched all of

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3150-421: The aviation industry. Like Mercury, Gemini used a joystick to give the astronauts manual control of yaw, pitch, and roll . Gemini added control of the spacecraft's translation (forward, backward, up, down, and sideways) with a pair of T-shaped handles (one for each crew member). Translation control enabled rendezvous and docking , and crew control of the flight path. The same controller types were also used in

3225-465: The backup crew for Gemini 5. The third rearrangement of crew assignment occurred when Slayton felt that See wasn't up to the physical demands of EVA on Gemini 8. He reassigned See to be the prime commander of Gemini 9 and put Scott as pilot of Gemini 8 and Charles Bassett as the pilot of Gemini 9. The fourth and final rearrangement of the Gemini crew assignment occurred after the deaths of See and Bassett when their trainer jet crashed, coincidentally into

3300-527: The backup crew would rotate to primary crew status three flights later. Slayton intended for first choice of mission commands to be given to the four remaining active astronauts of the Mercury Seven : Alan Shepard , Grissom, Cooper, and Schirra. ( John Glenn had retired from NASA in January 1964 and Scott Carpenter , who was blamed by some in NASA management for the problematic reentry of Aurora 7 ,

3375-436: The booster would be attaining Mach 1 speed and ejection would no longer be possible. He was also concerned about the astronauts being launched through the Titan's exhaust plume if they ejected in-flight and later added, "The best thing about Gemini was that they never had to make an escape." The Gemini ejection system was never tested with the Gemini cabin pressurized with pure oxygen, as it was prior to launch. In January 1967,

3450-422: The change. Columbia landed on Runway 17 at Edwards Air Force Base on December 8, 1983, at 03:47:24 p.m. PST , having completed 167 orbits and travelled 4.3 million miles (6.9 million kilometres) over the course of its mission. Right before landing, two of the orbiter's three auxiliary power units (APUs) caught fire due to a hydrazine leak, but the orbiter nonetheless landed successfully. Columbia

3525-442: The complex pad close-out procedures just prior to spacecraft launch, and he was the last person the astronauts would see prior to closing the hatch. The astronauts appreciated his taking absolute authority over, and responsibility for, the condition of the spacecraft and developed a good-humored rapport with him. NASA selected McDonnell Aircraft , which had been the prime contractor for the Project Mercury capsule, in 1961 to build

3600-538: The docking systems developed for the Agena Target Vehicle on more powerful upper stages such as the Centaur, which could propel the spacecraft to the Moon, to complete modifications of the Gemini to enable it to land on the lunar surface. Its applications would have ranged from crewed lunar flybys before Apollo was ready, to providing emergency shelters or rescue for stranded Apollo crews, or even replacing

3675-690: The early years of the Space Race , by demonstrating mission endurance up to just under 14 days, longer than the eight days required for a round trip to the Moon ; methods of performing extravehicular activity (EVA) without tiring; and the orbital maneuvers necessary to achieve rendezvous and docking with another spacecraft. This left Apollo free to pursue its prime mission without spending time developing these techniques. All Gemini flights were launched from Launch Complex 19 (LC-19) at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station in Florida. Their launch vehicle

3750-565: The fatal Apollo 1 fire demonstrated that pressurizing a spacecraft with pure oxygen created an extremely dangerous fire hazard. In a 1997 oral history, astronaut Thomas P. Stafford commented on the Gemini 6 launch abort in December 1965, when he and command pilot Wally Schirra nearly ejected from the spacecraft: So it turns out what we would have seen, had we had to do that, would have been two Roman candles going out, because we were 15 or 16 psi, pure oxygen, soaking in that for an hour and

3825-433: The fire of Apollo 1 , this final arrangement helped determine the makeup of the first seven Apollo crews, and who would be in position for a chance to be the first to walk on the Moon. In April 1964 and January 1965, two Gemini missions were flown without crews to test systems and the heat shield. These were followed by 10 flights with crews in 1965 and 1966. All were launched by Titan II launch vehicles. Some highlights from

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3900-495: The first non-U.S. citizen into space on the Shuttle, Ulf Merbold , becoming the first ESA and first West German citizen to go into space. STS-9's six-member crew, the largest of any human space mission at the time, included John W. Young, commander, on his second shuttle flight; Brewster H. Shaw, pilot; Owen K. Garriott and Robert A. Parker, both mission specialists; and Byron K. Lichtenberg and Ulf Merbold, payload specialists –

3975-676: The first two non-NASA astronauts to fly on the Space Shuttle. Merbold, a citizen of West Germany , was the first foreign citizen to participate in a Space Shuttle flight. Lichtenberg was a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to STS-9, the scientist-astronaut Garriott had spent 56 days in orbit in 1973 aboard Skylab . Commanding the mission was veteran astronaut John W. Young, making his sixth and final flight over an 18-year career that saw him fly twice each in Project Gemini , Apollo , and

4050-430: The flight deck, while the mission and payload specialists worked inside the Spacelab. Over the course of the mission, 72 scientific experiments were carried out, spanning the fields of atmospheric and plasma physics , astronomy , solar physics , material sciences , technology , astrobiology and Earth observations . The Spacelab effort went so well that the mission was extended an additional day to 10 days, making it

4125-512: The flight's numerical designation, STS-9. STS-9 launched successfully from Kennedy Space Center at 11:00:00 a.m. EST on November 28, 1983. The shuttle's crew was divided into two teams, each working 12-hour shifts for the duration of the mission. Young, Parker and Merbold formed the Red Team, while Shaw, Garriott and Lichtenberg made up the Blue Team. Usually, Young and Shaw were assigned to

4200-580: The landing, letting the orbiter drift. He later testified: "Had we then activated the Backup Flight Software, loss of vehicle and crew would have resulted". Post-flight analysis revealed the GPCs (General Purpose Computers) failed when the RCS thruster motion knocked a piece of solder loose and shorted out the CPU board. A GPC running BFS may or may not have the same soldering defect as the rest of

4275-498: The last syllable rhyming with eye . However, staff of the Manned Spacecraft Center, including the astronauts, tended to pronounce the name / ˈ dʒ ɛ m ɪ n i / , rhyming with knee . NASA's public affairs office then issued a statement in 1965 declaring "Jeh'-mih-nee" the "official" pronunciation. Gus Grissom , acting as Houston capsule communicator when Ed White performed his spacewalk on Gemini 4 ,

4350-420: The left-hand (command) and right-hand (pilot) seat crew positions were taken from the U.S. Air Force pilot ratings , Command Pilot and Pilot . Sixteen astronauts flew on 10 crewed Gemini missions: In late 1963, Slayton selected Shepard and Stafford for Gemini 3, McDivitt and White for Gemini 4, and Schirra and Young for Gemini 5 (which was to be the first Agena rendezvous mission). The backup crew for Gemini 3

4425-497: The longest-duration shuttle flight at that time. In addition, Garriott made the first ham radio transmissions by an amateur radio operator in space during the flight. This led to many further space flights incorporating amateur radio as an educational and back-up communications tool. The Spacelab 1 mission was highly successful, proving the feasibility of the concept of carrying out complex experiments in space using non-NASA persons trained as payload specialists in collaboration with

4500-546: The original bidders on the prime contract for Apollo, but lost out to North American Aviation . McDonnell later sought to extend the Gemini program by proposing a derivative which could be used to fly a cislunar mission and even achieve a crewed lunar landing earlier and at less cost than Apollo, but these proposals were rejected by NASA. A range of applications were considered for Advanced Gemini missions, including military flights, space station crew and logistics delivery, and lunar flights. The Lunar proposals ranged from reusing

4575-662: The realization of Project Mercury 's end and the unlikelihood of his having another flight in that program prompted him to focus all his efforts on the upcoming Gemini program. The Gemini program was managed by the Manned Spacecraft Center , located in Houston, Texas , under direction of the Office of Manned Space Flight, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Dr. George E. Mueller , Associate Administrator of NASA for Manned Space Flight, served as acting director of

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4650-572: The same time, thrusting the Descent module away from the Titan rocket. Gemini was equipped with an Orbit Attitude and Maneuvering System (OAMS), containing sixteen thrusters for translation control in all three perpendicular axes (forward/backward, left/right, up/down), in addition to attitude control (pitch, yaw, and roll angle orientation) as in Mercury. Translation control allowed changing orbital inclination and altitude, necessary to perform space rendezvous with other craft, and docking with

4725-476: The shuttles, as many as twenty-five before the program became known as ARISS. Licensed hams were able to participate during their free time. Most amateur radio operators used SAREX to speak with licensed astronauts during their down times. SAREX, however, has been very educational for young students from kindergarten to fifth grade involved in a program similar to young astronauts, in which elementary school children learn about astronauts' daily activities and what it

4800-459: The spacecraft. The Air Force had an interest in the Gemini system, and decided to use its own modification of the spacecraft as the crew vehicle for the Manned Orbital Laboratory . To this end, the Gemini 2 spacecraft was refurbished and flown again atop a mockup of the MOL, sent into space by a Titan III C. This was the first time a spacecraft went into space twice. The USAF also thought of adapting

4875-466: The two-man / two-vehicle program rechristened Project Gemini (Latin for "twins"), in reference to the third constellation of the Zodiac with its twin stars Castor and Pollux , on December 7, 1961. McDonnell Aircraft was contracted to build it on December 22, 1961. The program was publicly announced on January 3, 1962, with these major objectives: Chamberlin designed the Gemini capsule, which carried

4950-581: Was Grissom and Borman, who were also slated for Gemini 6 , to be the first long-duration mission. Finally Conrad and Lovell were assigned as the backup crew for Gemini 4 . Delays in the production of the Agena Target Vehicle caused the first rearrangement of the crew rotation. The Schirra and Young mission was bumped to Gemini 6 and they became the backup crew for Shepard and Stafford. Grissom and Borman then had their long-duration mission assigned to Gemini 5. The second rearrangement occurred when Shepard developed Ménière's disease , an inner ear problem. Grissom

5025-402: Was also the first Space Shuttle mission to have more than one veteran astronaut. The mission was devoted entirely to Spacelab 1, a joint NASA/ European Space Agency (ESA) program designed to demonstrate the ability to conduct advanced scientific research in space. Both the mission specialists and payload specialists worked in the Spacelab module and coordinated their efforts with scientists at

5100-466: Was ferried back to KSC on December 15, 1983. The leak was later discovered after it had burned itself out and caused major damage to the compartment. By this time, Discovery had been delivered just three weeks before the launch of STS-9. This allowed NASA to take Columbia out of service for an extensive renovation and upgrade program to bring it up to date with Challenger as well as Discovery and later on Atlantis , which would be delivered in 1985. As

5175-669: Was on leave to participate in the Navy's SEALAB project and was grounded from flight in July 1964 due to an arm injury sustained in a motorbike accident. Slayton himself continued to be grounded due to a heart problem.) As for Shepard, during training on the Gemini Project, his inner ear deficiency due to Menière's Disease would effectively ground him as well and keep him removed from the flight roster until he underwent corrective surgery and would not fly on Gemini at all, but return to flight with Apollo 14 as Commander. Titles used for

5250-632: Was rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), where it was destacked and the orbiter returned to the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF), while the suspect booster underwent repairs. The shuttle was restacked and returned to the launch pad on November 8, 1983. The mission's main payload, Spacelab 1, is depicted in the payload bay of the Columbia . The nine stars and the path of the orbiter indicate

5325-470: Was still under construction at the time. Also added to the shuttle were higher capacity fuel cells and a Ku-band antenna for use with the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS). The mission's original launch date of October 29, 1983, was scrubbed due to concerns with the exhaust nozzle on the right solid rocket booster (SRB). For the first time in the history of the shuttle program, the shuttle stack

5400-636: Was the Titan II GLV , a modified intercontinental ballistic missile . Gemini was the first program to use the newly built Mission Control Center at the Houston Manned Spacecraft Center for flight control . The project also used the Agena target vehicle , a modified Atlas-Agena upper stage, used to develop and practice orbital rendezvous and docking techniques. The astronaut corps that supported Project Gemini included

5475-409: Was then moved to command Gemini 3. Slayton felt that Young was a better personality match with Grissom and switched Stafford and Young. Finally, Slayton tapped Cooper to command the long-duration Gemini 5. Again for reasons of compatibility, he moved Conrad from backup commander of Gemini 4 to pilot of Gemini 5, and Borman to backup command of Gemini 4. Finally he assigned Armstrong and Elliot See to be

5550-451: Was used until STS-26 , which was designated in the aftermath of the 1986 Challenger disaster of STS-51-L . Under the new system, STS-9 would have been designated as STS-41-A. STS-9's originally planned successor, STS-10 , was canceled due to payload issues; it was instead followed by STS-41-B . After this mission, Columbia was taken out of service for renovations and did not fly again until STS-61-C in early January 1986. STS-9 sent

5625-591: Was useful to get students involved in space. Thus began the Space Amateur Radio Experiment, also known as SAREX. The second successful use of amateur radio in space was carried out by Anthony W. England (W0ORE) on Challenger flight STS-51F in 1985. He completed 130 contacts and sent 10 images via slow-scan television . In 1991, STS-37 became the first voyage to space on which the entire crew were licensed amateur radio operators. After these flights, amateur radios were often taken on

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