Gemini 6A (officially Gemini VI-A ) was a 1965 crewed United States spaceflight in NASA 's Gemini program . The mission, flown by Wally Schirra and Thomas P. Stafford , achieved the first crewed rendezvous with another spacecraft, its sister Gemini 7 . Although the Soviet Union had twice previously launched simultaneous pairs of Vostok spacecraft, these established radio contact with each other, but they had no ability to adjust their orbits in order to rendezvous and came no closer than several kilometers of each other, while the Gemini 6 and 7 spacecraft came as close as one foot (30 cm) and could have docked had they been so equipped.
44-512: Weatherford Public Schools is a public school district based in Weatherford , Oklahoma , United States . In addition to the city of Weatherford, the district also serves rural areas in southeastern Custer and northeastern Washita counties. The mascot for Weatherford Public Schools is the Eagle . The following figures are as of October 2008 This Oklahoma school-related article
88-584: A Moon rock . Aircraft displays include an actual Sopwith Pup , F-86 , F-104 , T-33 , T-38 , F-16 , and a rare MIG-21 , as well as full-scale replicas of the Wright Flyer , Bleriot and Spirit of St. Louis . Weatherford is the hometown of astronaut Thomas P. Stafford , veteran of four space flights and commander of the Gemini 9 , Apollo 10 missions and the Apollo–Soyuz project. The museum
132-472: A NASA oral history in 1997, later recalled: 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 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
176-529: A bright star that he thought was Sirius, but this was in fact Gemini 7. After several more burns, the two spacecraft were only 130 feet (40 meters) apart. 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 stationkeeping so well that neither crew had to make any burns for 20 minutes. Schirra said that because there
220-474: A household in the city was $ 26,908, and the median income for a family was $ 41,401. Males had a median income of $ 29,683 versus $ 20,833 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 16,046. About 11.8% of families and 21.7% of the population were below the poverty line , including 19.1% of those under age 18 and 11.8% of those age 65 or over. Kodak 's 50-year old manufacturing plant in Weatherford
264-747: A member of the WTC district, high school juniors and seniors living in the Weatherford School District have the opportunity to attend classes at WTC. High school students who are residents of the WTC District can enroll in WTC full-time training on a tuition-free basis. Adult students are allowed to attend classes on a tuition basis. Weatherford is home to the wind power facility called the Weatherford Wind Energy Center, with 98 GE 1.5 MW Wind Turbines, for
308-517: A total nameplate capacity of 147 MW. Weatherford was, for many years, situated on a main line of the now defunct Rock Island Railroad , which is still in operation by Farmrail Corporation . With the advent of the automobile, the city was initially located on State Highway 3 starting in the early 1920s, which was redesignated as U.S. Route 66 in 1926 and paved entirely across Western Oklahoma by 1932. Route 66, which followed Main Street through
352-490: A total of 29 orbits. It was to land in the western Atlantic Ocean south of Bermuda. The mission was to include four dockings with the Agena Target Vehicle . The first docking was scheduled for five hours and forty minutes into the mission. The second was scheduled for seven hours and forty-five minutes, the third at nine hours and forty minutes, and the fourth and final docking at ten hours and five minutes into
396-616: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Weatherford, Oklahoma Weatherford is a city in Custer County, Oklahoma , United States. The population was 12,076 at the time of the 2020 census , a gain of about 11.5% over the 10,833 figure from the 2010 census . According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 7.05 square miles (18.3 km ), all land. Situated on land made available to homesteaders as part of
440-447: Is available at Will Rogers World Airport , about 69 miles to the east. Gemini 6A Gemini 6A was the fifth crewed Gemini flight, the 13th crewed American flight, and the 21st crewed spaceflight of all time (including two X-15 flights over 100 kilometers (54 nautical miles)). The original Gemini 6 mission, scheduled for launch on October 25, 1965, at 12:41 pm EDT, had a planned mission duration of 46 hours 47 minutes, completing
484-454: Is hexagonal in shape, reflecting the mission number; and the spacecraft trajectory also traces out the number "6". The Gemini 6 spacecraft is shown superimposed on the "twin stars" Castor and Pollux, for "Gemini". I designed the patch to locate in the sixth hour of celestial right ascension. This was the predicted celestial area where the rendezvous should occur (in the constellation Orion). It finally did occur there. The original patch had called
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#1732779959577528-461: Is located at the Thomas P. Stafford Airport . Weatherford also has The Oklahoma Heartland of America Museum, which opened in 2007. The 12,000 square foot building contains many artifacts from the late 1800s through the 1950s in thirty-two major historical exhibits, including a 1931 Model A Ford sports coupe, and features three historic theme buildings (diner, school house, and blacksmith's shop) on
572-420: 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". 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
616-557: Is one of two universities in the state that feature an accredited school of pharmacy. Parochial schools in the area include ACSI accredited Western Oklahoma Christian School, which has campuses in Weatherford, as well as nearby Clinton and Elk City , serving grades pre-kindergarten through six. Corn Bible Academy, located in the Washita County town of Corn , serves students in grades seven through twelve. Weatherford Public Schools provides public education services to
660-554: The Cheyenne-Arapaho Roundup and Removal on April 19, 1892, Weatherford was incorporated on August 3, 1898, on a townsite location chosen by banking and civic leader Beeks Erick. By 1900, the town's population was 1,017. The town's original post office was located approximately two miles north of town, on William John and Lorinda Powell Weatherford's homestead. Lorinda Weatherford served as its postmaster and namesake. In its early years, farming and ranching provided
704-600: The Atlantic Ocean. After 50 minutes, the Gemini launch was canceled. After reviewing the situation, NASA decided to launch an alternate Gemini 6A mission, eight days after the launch of Gemini 7 , which was scheduled as a 14-day long-duration mission in December. Gemini 6A would perform the first rendezvous of two spacecraft in orbit, using Gemini 7 as the target, though they would not dock. The crews also discussed
748-464: The abort sensing system would have sent a shutoff command to the Titan at T+2.2 seconds due to the loss of Engine No. 2 chamber pressure. Since launcher release and liftoff would take place at T+3.2 seconds, a pad fallback still would not have occurred in this scenario and the astronauts would have been safe. The Titan's batteries were replaced and the fuel prevalves, which had opened, were removed and it
792-479: The astronauts slept. The next day, before reentry, the crew of Gemini 6A had a surprise: ...this is Gemini VI. We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, up in a polar orbit. He's in a very low trajectory traveling from north to south and has a very high climbing ratio. It looks like it might even be a ... Very low. Looks like he might be going to reenter soon. Stand by one ... You might just let me try to pick up that thing. At that point,
836-548: The booster and spacecraft had been made safe and the service tower raised up to it. After removing the propellants from the Titan II, the booster was checked out and they quickly uncovered one culprit, which was an umbilical plug that dropped out of the base of the booster prematurely. This plug sent a lift-off signal to the spacecraft. Testing revealed that some plugs came out more easily than others, so they were replaced by different ones that would stay in place properly. However,
880-436: The booster had not lifted, so he decided not to abort. His quick thinking probably saved the mission as the reliability of the Gemini ejector seats was questionable; the astronauts could have been badly injured from high g-forces as the seats had to launch them at least 800 feet, which was deemed a safe distance from an exploding Titan II. In addition, the cabin interior had been soaking in pure oxygen for hours. Tom Stafford, in
924-409: The city of Weatherford as well as surrounding rural areas in southeastern Custer and northeastern Washita counties. The district operates three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. Western Technology Center (WTC) provides the opportunity for adults and high school students to get occupationally-specific training. Weatherford Public Schools is a member of the WTC district. As
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#1732779959577968-562: The city was 73.7% White , 4.9% African American , 2.3% Native American , 1.4% Asian , 0.03% Pacific Islander , 1.76% from other races , and 6.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 10.8% of the population. There were 3,991 households, out of which 25.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.5% were married couples living together, 9.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.2% were non-families. 31.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.3% had someone living alone who
1012-453: The city, was lined with various tourist businesses including cafes, motels and gasoline stations like most other cities along the highway. Several blocks of Main Street were also paved in brick until the mid-1950s when it was widened to a four-lane thoroughfare. Interstate 40 was completed east and west of the city in 1960 generally paralleling the old U.S. 66 alignment, which was retained as frontage road. The I-40 bypass skirting Weatherford to
1056-432: The electrical plug turned out to not be the only problem with the booster. Examination of telemetry also showed that the Titan actually began experiencing thrust decay before the plug dropped out. Engine No. 1 was unaffected and nearly reached 100% thrust at shutdown, while Engine No. 2 never transitioned to in-flight performance levels. Engineers spent all night combing through the first stage, but failed to find any cause for
1100-513: The engines ignited, but after about 1.5 seconds they abruptly shut down. Since the lift-off clock had started in the spacecraft, mission rules dictated that Wally Schirra, as the commander, had to immediately pull the D-ring between his knees and activate the ejection seats , carrying the astronauts away from the disaster that would be the result of a fully fueled Titan II falling back onto LC-19. However, Schirra did not feel any movement and knew that
1144-459: The first live television coverage of the recovery of a U.S. spacecraft at sea from the recovery ship, the U.S. aircraft carrier Wasp . The Wasp was fitted with ground station equipment by ITT to relay live television, via the Intelsat I (nicknamed the "Early Bird") satellite. On October 25, 1965, Schirra and Stafford boarded their Gemini 6 craft to prepare for launch. Fifteen minutes later,
1188-607: The flight GTA-6 (for Gemini-Titan-Agena) and showed the Gemini craft chasing an Agena. It was changed when the mission was altered to depict two Gemini spacecraft. The spacecraft is currently on display at the Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma , having previously been displayed at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City . The spacecraft had previously been on display at
1232-498: The major economic base, with corn, cotton, and maize the major crops. Additionally, a brick plant, a cement plant, and a broom factory provided jobs as well as supplies for early residents. As of the census of 2015, there were 12,126 people, 3,991 households, and 2,187 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,699.3 inhabitants per square mile (656.1/km ). There were 4,468 housing units at an average density of 770.1 per square mile (297.3/km ). The racial makeup of
1276-509: The mission. The final undocking would take place at 18 hours and 20 minutes into the mission. At 23 hours and 55 minutes into the mission, while the spacecraft passed over White Sands, New Mexico , the crew was to attempt to observe a laser beam originating from the ground. The retrorockets were scheduled to be fired at 46 hours and 10 minutes into the mission over the Pacific Ocean on the 29th orbit. Original mission plans also included
1320-530: The museum grounds. The City of Weatherford has twelve parks containing over eight hundred acres, including Heritage Park, across from City Hall, which displays a wind turbine blade for close inspection. Weatherford has four NRHP-listed sites including the Owl Blacksmith Shop at 208 W. Rainey. At the turn of the 20th century, Weatherford beat out several other cities vying to become the home to Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU), at
1364-447: The possibility of Stafford performing an EVA from 6A to 7, swapping places with Gemini 7 pilot Jim Lovell , but the commander of Gemini 7, Frank Borman , objected, pointing out that it would require Lovell to wear an uncomfortable EVA suit on a long-duration mission. The first attempt to launch the 6A mission (second attempt for Gemini spacecraft No. 6) was on December 12, 1965, at 9:54 a.m. EST. All went well right up to ignition;
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1408-405: The rendezvous to take place on the fourth orbit of Gemini 6. Their first burn came 94 minutes after launch when they increased their speed by 5 meters (16 1 ⁄ 2 feet) per second. Due to their lower orbit they were gaining on Gemini 7 and were only 730 miles, (or 1,175 kilometers), behind. The next burn was at two hours and eighteen minutes when Gemini 6A made a phase adjustment to put them on
1452-433: The same orbital inclination as Gemini 7. They now only trailed by 300 miles (483 km). The radar on Gemini 6A first made contact with Gemini 7 at three hours and fifteen minutes when they were 434 kilometers (270 mi) away. A third burn put them into a 168-by-170-mile (270 by 274 km) orbit. As they slowly gained, Schirra put Gemini 6A's computer in charge of the rendezvous. At five hours and four minutes, he saw
1496-420: The sound of " Jingle Bells " was heard played on an eight-note Hohner "Little Lady" harmonica and a handful of small bells. The Smithsonian Institution claims these were the first musical instruments played in space and keeps the instruments on display. Gemini 6A fired its retro-rockets and landed within 18 kilometers (11 miles) of the planned site in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Turks and Caicos . It
1540-552: The south was completed in July, 1970 the same day the I-40 bypass was opened to traffic 15 miles (24 km) to the west at Clinton and followed shortly thereafter by bypasses at Elk City and Sayre. In addition to Route 66 and I-40, Weatherford is also served by north–south State Highway 54 . The Thomas P Stafford Airport (KOJA; FAA ID: OJA), two miles northeast of town, features a 5100’ x 75’ paved runway. Commercial air transportation
1584-560: The spacecraft and delay the mission for months. After the Stage I engines ignited and shut down, fuel ( UDMH ) was leaking out of the PSV drain valve. The fuel had been ignited by the engine start, and the resulting fire was discovered when the Pad Crew inspected the engine compartment. Water spray was initiated and a cap was installed on the drain line. About 60 minutes after the aborted launch,
1628-474: The thrust decay. Eventually however, one technician identified the problem, which was a plastic dust cover inside the gas generator that had been carelessly left inside when the booster was assembled months earlier at the Martin-Marietta plant, blocking the flow of oxidizer. The cover was removed and the Titan II cleared for another launch attempt. Had the inadvertent electrical disconnect not occurred,
1672-628: The time known as Southwestern Oklahoma State College. Founded in 1901, it was first known as Southwestern State Teachers College. SWOSU became the largest institute of higher education in Western Oklahoma, with more than 4,200 undergraduates and post graduates by 2015. SWOSU is placed in Tier 2 of the "Regional Universities (West)" category in the 2016 edition of the U.S. News & World Report Education Rankings and offers associate, bachelor's, master's and professional doctorate degree programs. It
1716-505: The uncrewed Atlas-Agena target vehicle was launched. After a successful burn of the Atlas booster, the Agena's engine fired to separate it from the Atlas. 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
1760-401: Was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 2.96. In the city, the population was spread out, with 19.8% under the age of 18, 32.1% from 18 to 24, 22.4% from 25 to 44, 16.2% from 45 to 64, and 9.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24 years. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.2 males. The median income for
1804-404: 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. Even if the astronauts had not been injured or killed, ejection would ruin
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1848-444: Was decided to launch without them. The second attempt to launch the 6A mission (third attempt for Gemini spacecraft No. 6) was successful on December 15 at 8:37:26 a.m. EST. All went well through launch and ascent; first stage cutoff occurred at T+160 seconds and second stage cutoff at T+341 seconds. Spacecraft separation occurred at T+361 seconds and the crew entered a 100-by-161-mile (161 by 259 km) orbit. The plan called for
1892-532: Was subject to a $ 15 million expansion in 2017 related to flexographic packaging plates. Weatherford is a hub for multiple oil and natural gas industry leaders such as Oneok Field Services and Chesapeake Energy , as well as a location for wind power production. The 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m ) Stafford Air & Space Museum is home to the Gemini 6A spacecraft, an actual Titan II missile, WWII V-2 rocket , Saturn V F-1 engine as well as flown space suits, flight equipment, Space Shuttle engines, and
1936-472: Was the first recovery to be televised live, through a transportable satellite earth station developed by ITT on the deck of the recovery aircraft carrier USS Wasp . The Gemini 7 and 6A missions were supported by the following U.S. Department of Defense resources: 10,125 personnel, 125 aircraft and 16 ships. Walter Schirra explained the patch in the book All We Did Was Fly to the Moon : The Gemini 6 patch
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