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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how

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Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host Jothan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with

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Speaker 1: how Stuff Works in love all Things Tech. And in

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Speaker 1: my last episode, I talked about the early efforts to

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Speaker 1: put a human being into Earth orbit to the moon, actually, no,

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Speaker 1: just to the orbit. We covered how the Soviet Union

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Speaker 1: did it first with a cosmonaut named Yuri and inside

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Speaker 1: a Vostok one spacecraft actually as a Vostok three K,

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Speaker 1: a spacecraft that was named the Vostok one. And I

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Speaker 1: also talked about how US astronaut Alan Shepherd flew a

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Speaker 1: suborbital mission in the Freedom seven Mercury space capsule. But

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Speaker 1: I had not quite reached the point where a U.

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Speaker 1: S astronaut completed an orbit of the Earth or what

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Speaker 1: came next. So in today's episode, we're gonna look more

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Speaker 1: at those missions and the spacecraft that followed those early examples.

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Speaker 1: So both the Vostok and the Mercury spacecraft went on

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Speaker 1: six missions, not not the same spacecraft, but those models, uh,

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Speaker 1: they both went on six different missions from nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: one to nineteen sixty three. So they were closely in

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Speaker 1: competition with one another. The Soviet missions included Valentina Tereshkova.

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Speaker 1: She was the first woman in space. The US missions

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Speaker 1: had two suborbital missions, the first in the Freedom seven

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Speaker 1: that I mentioned earlier with Alan Shepard. The second was

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Speaker 1: in a spacecraft named the Liberty Bell seven. That one

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Speaker 1: was piloted by Virgil Ivan Gus Grissom. Gus would also

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Speaker 1: play a very important role in the development of the

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Speaker 1: Gemini spacecraft, which I'll talk about later in this episode.

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Speaker 1: And starting with the third Mercury mission, which was in

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Speaker 1: the Friendship seven and was piloted by John Glenn, the

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Speaker 1: US began to send astronauts into orbits, so John Glenn

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Speaker 1: was the first US astronaut to go into orbit. I'll

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Speaker 1: cover that one more in just a second, because that

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Speaker 1: was a big deal for the US. The Mercury missions

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Speaker 1: had two designations. These suborbital flights were classified under the

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Speaker 1: name Mercury Redstone. The four orbital missions were called Mercury

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Speaker 1: Atlas missions. So along with Shephard, Grissom, and Glenn, you

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Speaker 1: had the astronauts Leroy Gordon, Gordy Cooper Jr. Walter Marty,

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Speaker 1: Wally Skira Jr. Malcolm Scott Carpenter who didn't get a

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Speaker 1: fun nickname, I guess, and Donald Kent Deek Slayton, the

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Speaker 1: only one of the seven who did not pilot a

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Speaker 1: Mercury mission. Because I remember there were six Mercury missions,

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Speaker 1: they were one man capsules, seven astronauts. Someone gets left out.

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Speaker 1: The one left out was Donald Kent Deek Slayton. He

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Speaker 1: was grounded after medical exams found he had an irregularity

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Speaker 1: with his heartbeat, and just to be on the safe side,

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Speaker 1: they decided not to send him up into space, although

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Speaker 1: everyone kept saying he'd probably be okay, but we don't

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Speaker 1: want to take the chance. Slayton, however, would eventually regain

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Speaker 1: his flight status in the nineteen seventies and would ultimately

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Speaker 1: get to travel to space as part of an Apollo

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Speaker 1: Soyu's mission, which I'll talk about in the next episode.

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Speaker 1: That was a collaborative effort between the United States and

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Speaker 1: the Soviet space programs. So he did finally get to

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Speaker 1: go up into space, but it was a decade later

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Speaker 1: than what he had planned. John Glenn's historic flight on

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Speaker 1: February twenty, nineteen sixty two, some orbit the Earth three

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Speaker 1: times the mission took nearly five hours from launch to touchdown,

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Speaker 1: and Cooper's mission on May fifteenth, nineteen sixty three, on

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Speaker 1: the Faith seven took nearly a day and a half.

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Speaker 1: This was the final Mercury mission. So why did it

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Speaker 1: take so long, Well, it's because Cooper orbited the Earth

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Speaker 1: twenty two times. To prepare for these orbital missions, astronauts

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Speaker 1: would train for two years and one month out from

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Speaker 1: the mission launch date. Two astronauts would get the nod

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Speaker 1: as being the picks for that mission. You would have

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Speaker 1: an astronaut and you would have an alternate. That way,

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Speaker 1: if the primary pick had an issue on launch day,

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Speaker 1: like a medical condition that could threaten the safety of

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Speaker 1: the astronaut or the mission, there was already an alternate.

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Speaker 1: So let's say it's launched day. Everyone wakes up. Turns

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Speaker 1: out your primary pick for your mission has come down

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Speaker 1: with a terrible case of food poisoning. Well, you can't

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Speaker 1: send that person up in a spacecraft. You have to

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Speaker 1: go with your alternate. Three days before launch, the astronauts

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Speaker 1: who had been picked for that mission would be switched

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Speaker 1: to a special diet that would help reduce the possibility

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Speaker 1: that said astronaut would need to go poop during the mission.

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Speaker 1: I said that in a way to honor my former

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Speaker 1: co host Chris Palette, who I think would have said

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Speaker 1: it the same way. Chris, if you're listening, let me know.

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Speaker 1: The astronauts would get suited up and put on a

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Speaker 1: mask to breathe pure oxygen to prep for the conditions

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Speaker 1: of being inside the capsule a few hours before they

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Speaker 1: actually would get in. Two hours before launch they would

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Speaker 1: go and get into them are cury capsule, so they

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Speaker 1: still have two hours to go. And the last episode

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Speaker 1: I mentioned the dimensions of this capsule. It was big

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Speaker 1: enough for a single astronaut seated in kind of a

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Speaker 1: reclined position, so they're essentially laying on their backs in

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Speaker 1: a seated position, staring up at the sky. Outside the capsule,

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Speaker 1: mechanics would bolt on the hatch to seal the astronaut inside.

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Speaker 1: Ground control would go forward with the countdown, checking all

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Speaker 1: the launch systems and the weather conditions to make sure

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Speaker 1: everything was good to go. Delays would just mean that

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Speaker 1: the astronaut would be laying down there for a really

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Speaker 1: long time. There's a great story about Alan Shepherd and

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Speaker 1: a delay and his roop need to make use of

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Speaker 1: the facilities, and there are no facilities aboard the Mercury,

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Speaker 1: at least not that first one. I'll leave it at that.

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Speaker 1: You can read up on it if you really want

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Speaker 1: to know more. Anyway, four seconds before liftoff, the rocket

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Speaker 1: engines would come to life and they would ignite. Clamps

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Speaker 1: would hold the launch vehicle down on the pad, essentially

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Speaker 1: holding the rocket in place until enough thrust had been

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Speaker 1: built up for liftoff. At that point, the clamps would

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Speaker 1: release and the rocket would lift off the launch pad,

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Speaker 1: and a couple of minutes after launch to booster, rocket

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Speaker 1: engines would turn off and jettison off the vehicle. A

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Speaker 1: central thruster would continue to fire and give enough thrust

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Speaker 1: to do sort of the final push to get up

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Speaker 1: into orbit. That would continue until they reached the proper

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Speaker 1: orbital altitude, and then they would the capsule could re

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Speaker 1: orient itself into a position that was horizontal with respect

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Speaker 1: to the Earth, then the engine would shut off. At

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Speaker 1: that point, the spacecraft would jettison the launch engines and

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Speaker 1: continue its orbit until it was time to reorient again

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Speaker 1: and fire the retro rockets, which would slow down the

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Speaker 1: spacecraft enough for it to re enter the Earth's atmosphere.

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Speaker 1: That repositioning for re entry was really the only maneuvering

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Speaker 1: the capsule could do in space, and it took just

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Speaker 1: a bit less than an hour and a half to

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Speaker 1: make a full orbit of the Earth, around eighty eight

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Speaker 1: minutes or so to do one full orbit. I talked

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Speaker 1: about the reentry process in the last episode, so I'm

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Speaker 1: not going to go over it again here, because it

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Speaker 1: was the same for each of the Mercury missions. To

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Speaker 1: slow down enough so that the parachutes would deploy once

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Speaker 1: you hit certain altitudes, and then you would land in

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Speaker 1: the water and wait to get picked up. Now, it's

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Speaker 1: basically it. The first of the six man Mercury flights

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Speaker 1: happened on May five, nineteen sixty one. The final one

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Speaker 1: happened on May fifteenth, nineteen sixty three. During that time,

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Speaker 1: what was happening over at the Soviet Union. Well, in

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Speaker 1: the last episode, I talked about the Vostok one mission

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Speaker 1: with Uri, which was again that first space mission to

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Speaker 1: put a human into orbit, that happened in April nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty one, a month before the first manned Mercury mission.

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Speaker 1: Then the Americans held their first suborbital manned flight, which

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Speaker 1: was partially piloted by the astronaut inside the spacecraft. So

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Speaker 1: that was a little bit of a one up on

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Speaker 1: the Soviets in that respect, because Uri didn't control the

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Speaker 1: space craft of the Vostok one that was completely under

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Speaker 1: automatic control. On August six, nineteen sixty one, a few

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Speaker 1: months later, the Vostok two launched into space with the

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Speaker 1: then twenty five year old cosmonaut Garman Titov. He spent

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Speaker 1: more than a day orbiting the Earth. He was out

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Speaker 1: in space orbiting the Earth for more than twenty four hours.

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Speaker 1: That was something that the Americans would not be able

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Speaker 1: to match. For nearly two years, his spacecraft orbited the

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Speaker 1: Earth seventeen times during the amount of time he was

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Speaker 1: out in space. And like Uri, Titov was inside a

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Speaker 1: Vostok three k A spacecraft. It was called the Vostok two,

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Speaker 1: but its classification was Vostok three k A. The crew

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Speaker 1: compartment was essentially a sphere. It is the same as

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Speaker 1: as Uri Gagarin's. This connected to an equipment module that

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Speaker 1: was more conical in shape. I mentioned that in the

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Speaker 1: previous episode two that in turn connected to the rocket engines.

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Speaker 1: The length of the mission was a matter of hot

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Speaker 1: scientific debate before the launch of the law stuck to

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Speaker 1: how long should this mission be. The Russians had experimented

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Speaker 1: with dogs aboard a spacecraft that had made six orbits

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Speaker 1: of the Earth, and during those experiments the dogs had

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Speaker 1: experienced convulsions, so those Soviets weren't sure. Maybe if you

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Speaker 1: stayed in space for more than just a few orbits

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Speaker 1: you might start having severe health issues. So the dogs

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Speaker 1: had returned to Earth alive, but it left the scientists

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Speaker 1: worried that a human might encounter similar problems after extended

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Speaker 1: periods of weightlessness. There was also a concern about where

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Speaker 1: the spacecraft was going to land, because each time it

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Speaker 1: orbited the Earth, it would actually shift the landing position

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Speaker 1: for the the spacecraft. It would shift a little bit

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Speaker 1: to the west. So if you orbited a few times,

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Speaker 1: you would still be in Russia Russia is a really

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Speaker 1: big country, but a few more than that and suddenly

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Speaker 1: you're in Europe, and then you'd be out over the ocean, etcetera.

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Speaker 1: And so you have to keep orbiting the Earth until

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Speaker 1: you had done essentially a twenty four hour stint in

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Speaker 1: space before you were over Russia again. So the choices

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Speaker 1: seemed to be either go up for a very short

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Speaker 1: amount of time, which was similar to what they had

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Speaker 1: already done, or grow up for a longer time, not

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Speaker 1: knowing what the effects were going to be, but you

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Speaker 1: would be able to land the spacecraft back in Russia.

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Speaker 1: So ultimately they decided to go with the longer mission.

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Speaker 1: Titov was given manual control of his spacecraft during the mission,

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Speaker 1: so while he was in orbit he was able to

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Speaker 1: take control of this Vostok to spacecraft. Ground controls still

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Speaker 1: maintained control of the spacecraft for most of its operation.

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Speaker 1: The mission did have a couple of issues. One of

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Speaker 1: the was the first known instance of space sickness. This

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Speaker 1: is a kind of a disoriented nausea that can set

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Speaker 1: upon an astronaut or a cosmonaut. Titov became nauseated shortly

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Speaker 1: after the first few orbits had passed. He fell asleep

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Speaker 1: after his spacecraft had made seven orbits. This was planned.

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Speaker 1: He was actually going to bed, and he slept for

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Speaker 1: more than eight hours, but when he woke up he

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Speaker 1: reported that he still wasn't feeling great. It was only

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Speaker 1: after twelve orbits that the nausea passed. Also, like the

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Speaker 1: Vostok one, the Vostok to experienced problems upon re entry.

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Speaker 1: If you listen to my last episode, you heard about that.

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Speaker 1: In fact, it was exactly the same issue. The equipment module,

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Speaker 1: that conical section that's connected to the sphere that's the

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Speaker 1: re entry module, did not detach properly at the beginning

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Speaker 1: of re entry. It's supposed to jettison off, but it

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Speaker 1: failed to do that completely. It was still kind of

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Speaker 1: tethered to the spherical re entry module. That threw off

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Speaker 1: the Vostech two's orientation. You suddenly had this loose weight

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Speaker 1: that was connected to your re entry module, and it

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Speaker 1: made it spin and gyrate and shake like crazy. Eventually,

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Speaker 1: the heat and the various gyrations of this spacecraft made

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Speaker 1: that tether break, and then the re entry module was

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Speaker 1: all by itself and it continued down as it had

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Speaker 1: been intended, and it uh there were no other issues

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Speaker 1: and uh and Titov was able to eject at the

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Speaker 1: seven kilometer mark and float down safely on his parachute.

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Speaker 1: Now I've got more to say about the Vostok commissions,

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Speaker 1: but before I get into that, let's take a quick

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Speaker 1: break to thank our sponsor. A year After the Vostok

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Speaker 1: two mission, the Soviet Union held a pair of launches.

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Speaker 1: On August eleven, n andre Nikkarayev launched into space on

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Speaker 1: the Vostok three, and he would end up spending almost

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Speaker 1: four full days in orbit, making sixty four orbits around

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Speaker 1: the Earth. This was still a year before Gordie Cooper

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Speaker 1: would break the amer I Can record by orbiting the

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Speaker 1: Earth twenty two times in the Faith seven Mercury Capsule,

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Speaker 1: So the Soviet Union was really setting records in endurance

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Speaker 1: in orbit, and records that wouldn't be broke until NASA

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Speaker 1: would have their Gemini project later on the day after

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Speaker 1: the Vostok three launched, the Soviet Union launched the Vostok four.

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Speaker 1: This one carried Pavel Popovich on board. That made the

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Speaker 1: Soviet Union the first country in the world to have

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Speaker 1: two manned spacecraft in orbit at the same time. The

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Speaker 1: two ships were actually able to establish ship to ship

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Speaker 1: radio communication when they got close enough to each other,

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Speaker 1: and by close enough, I mean they were still kilometers apart,

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Speaker 1: like six and a half kilometers apart when they established

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Speaker 1: radio communications, so they weren't like they were right next

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Speaker 1: to each other. The USSR would then repeat that feat

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Speaker 1: with the Vostok five and six capsules. Remember, Vostok six

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Speaker 1: was also the one that had Valentina Tereshkova, the first

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Speaker 1: woman in space aboarded. Those spacecraft launched in June nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty three. The Vostok five made eighty two orbits. The

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Speaker 1: Vostok six, with Valentina aboard, made forty eight orbits. Like

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Speaker 1: the Vostok one and two spacecraft, the Vostok five experienced

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Speaker 1: those same problems with that separation from the equipment module

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Speaker 1: upon re entry. And at this point it's amazing to

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Speaker 1: me that none of these Soviet missions resulted in a

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Speaker 1: catastrophic failure upon re entry. Now, there are conspiracy theories

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Speaker 1: that alleged the Soviet Union space program resulted in numerous

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Speaker 1: unreported cosmonaut fatalities. I should add that most of those

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Speaker 1: conspiracy theories don't rely on very convincing evidence. It's a

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Speaker 1: lot of circumstantial stuff and a lot of just wild speculation.

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Speaker 1: Now that does not mean that the theories are wrong necessarily,

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Speaker 1: but I wouldn't put stock into them without more actual

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Speaker 1: evidence in proof of the matter. Did it happen, maybe,

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Speaker 1: but I haven't seen the evidence to convince me. Yet,

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Speaker 1: both the Archy and Vostok programs had those six manned

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Speaker 1: missions and both saw the final missions launch in nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty three, and both the USA and the USSR would

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Speaker 1: go on to different designs for their next spacecraft, although

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Speaker 1: they were both very similar to the previous generation of spacecraft.

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Speaker 1: So for the Soviets, that was the Voshkod project, And

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Speaker 1: I have no idea if I'm saying that correctly. I

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Speaker 1: could be completely butchering it, but I'm going with it.

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Speaker 1: So the vosh Cood space vehicles started off essentially as

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Speaker 1: Vostok spacecraft, but they had a couple of different designs

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Speaker 1: to it. One, they had an additional solid fuel retro

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Speaker 1: rocket mounted on the re entry module. Remember the first

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Speaker 1: Vostok spacecraft had one retro rocket, and if it failed

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Speaker 1: then the cosmonauta board would just have to wait for

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Speaker 1: ten days for the orbit to decay enough for the

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Speaker 1: spacecraft to re enter the Earth's atmosphere. However, the Vashkad

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Speaker 1: could not take this luxury, if you can call it that,

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Speaker 1: because it was going to be placed in a higher orbit,

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Speaker 1: so it would take much longer for its orbit to

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Speaker 1: decay and it would put the cosmonauts life in danger,

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Speaker 1: so just in case one of the retro rockets were

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Speaker 1: the main retro rocket, if it were to fail, there

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Speaker 1: was a backup. The Vashkad also had a projection on

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Speaker 1: it that was a place it was a ring where

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Speaker 1: inside the ring there was an inflatable airlock system inside

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Speaker 1: of it, which would be used on the second vash

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Speaker 1: Cod mission. It wasn't used in the first one, but

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Speaker 1: it would be used in the second one, and that

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Speaker 1: gave the vosh God spacecraft a little bit of a

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Speaker 1: knobby look to it compared to the Vostok one. But

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Speaker 1: the Vashkad also lacked an important feature that the Vostok had,

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Speaker 1: which was a launch escape system. The Vostok had a

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Speaker 1: limited escape system if an emergency happened during launch, assuming

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Speaker 1: it wasn't too early in the launch or too late

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Speaker 1: in the launch, you could actually use the escape system

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Speaker 1: to pull the cosmonaut away to safety. The vash Cod

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Speaker 1: did not have this, so if there had been a

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Speaker 1: failure during launch, there would be no escape for the cosmonauts,

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Speaker 1: which is pretty terrifying. It was designed to land with

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Speaker 1: the crew still inside the spacecraft, which again set it

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Speaker 1: apart from the Vostok. With Vostok, once you hit seven

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Speaker 1: kilometers upon descent, you would eject out of the spacecraft

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Speaker 1: and you would parachute by yourself down to the ground.

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Speaker 1: The vash God was meant to parachute with the cosmonauts

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Speaker 1: still inside the capsule. And that that bit about the

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Speaker 1: crew being inside the capsule and saying like everyone would

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Speaker 1: still be inside, that's a clue to the other big advancement.

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Speaker 1: The vash God could carry more than one cosmonaut. Now

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Speaker 1: it was meant to carry two, but political pressure from

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Speaker 1: the Soviet government that really was determined to show up

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Speaker 1: the United States demanded that the first manned vosh Good

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Speaker 1: mission would actually have three crew members, and that was

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Speaker 1: more or less a political requirement, not a technologic goal

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Speaker 1: requirement a scientific one. It was politically motivated, and the

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Speaker 1: engineers had to figure out how to make this work

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Speaker 1: in a spacecraft that was really meant to carry just

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Speaker 1: two people in space suits. So that meant that the

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Speaker 1: three people inside the Vashkod could not wear space suits.

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Speaker 1: They had to wear normal jumpsuits but not space suits,

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Speaker 1: which was again terrifying because if anything went wrong, there

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Speaker 1: was no pressurized space suit that could save their lives.

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Speaker 1: They would just die in that capsule. And America was

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Speaker 1: already at work of the Gemini project. So this had

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Speaker 1: created a real um motivation for Russia to move forward

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Speaker 1: and get multiple cosmonauts aboard one space vehicle. It would

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Speaker 1: set another world's first, to be the world's first spacecraft

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Speaker 1: to carry more than one person. That three person crew

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Speaker 1: came with some other hefty drawbacks. Uh, it wasn't just

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Speaker 1: the space suits. I mean, there was hardly any room

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Speaker 1: for anyone to move, and there was a real concern

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Speaker 1: that the the close proximity and the limited maneuverability was

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Speaker 1: going to require them to cut the mission short. The

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Speaker 1: vash Cod one launched on October twelve, nineteen sixty four,

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Speaker 1: and they completed sixteen orbits around the Earth and returned

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Speaker 1: a little more than twenty four hours after launch. The

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Speaker 1: Vashkod also had a breaking rocket, as in hit the

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Speaker 1: brakes that would help slow down the spacecraft's descent and

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Speaker 1: help reduce the impact of landing on solid ground. Because

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Speaker 1: the vosh Cod, unlike the Mercury or the Gemini where

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Speaker 1: the Apollo as it were, wasn't designed to land in

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Speaker 1: the water. It was designed to land on firm ground

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Speaker 1: for the cosmonauts aboard the vosh God. The world changed

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Speaker 1: significantly during their mission because when they went up into space,

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Speaker 1: the Soviet premiere was Nikita Khrushchev. When they landed a

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Speaker 1: day later, Krishtchev had been removed from power and replaced

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Speaker 1: by Alexey caused Gin and Leonid Brezhnev, which is a

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Speaker 1: heck of a twenty four hours when the leadership of

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Speaker 1: your country has changed in essentially a coup. Since you

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Speaker 1: went up into space, it came back down. That's a

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Speaker 1: big deal, especially when you consider it's the government that's

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Speaker 1: funding everything. The vash good To mission would launch in

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Speaker 1: March nineteen sixty five. Now, this was a two man

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Speaker 1: mission with both cosmonauts wearing space suits. This was supposed

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Speaker 1: to be more along the lines of what the engineers

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Speaker 1: had intended from the beginning. This was also a necessity

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Speaker 1: they had to wear space suits because this was the

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Speaker 1: first space flight to have a space walk, meaning one

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Speaker 1: of the two cosmonauts was going to have to leave

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Speaker 1: the spacecraft and go out into outer space, so both

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Speaker 1: of them had to have space suits. Alexei Leonov, the

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Speaker 1: pilot of the craft conducted a twelve minute spacewalk during

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Speaker 1: this mission, and the whole mission lasted a little more

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Speaker 1: than twenty four hours and the craft made seventeen orbits

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Speaker 1: of the Earth. The Vashkod deployed in inflatable exterior airlock

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Speaker 1: in order to allow for this mission that that airlock,

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Speaker 1: like I said, was on sort of a ring on

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Speaker 1: the outer side of the spherical reentry module, and after use,

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Speaker 1: after Leonov had come back into the capsule, they would

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Speaker 1: jettison the airlock into space, so it was not a

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Speaker 1: permanent part of the spacecraft itself. The airlock required seven

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Speaker 1: minutes to inflate. It had forty channels into which air

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Speaker 1: would flow, and those channels were all grouped into three

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Speaker 1: big clusters and that would hold the shape of the airlock.

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Speaker 1: The airlock kept the spacecraft pressurized while it was first deployed,

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Speaker 1: so Leonov would inflate this airlock, open up the hatch,

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Speaker 1: climb into the airlock, and his commander, Pavo Beliyev would

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Speaker 1: seal the hatch behind Leonov, and then the airlock would

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Speaker 1: be depressurized. That would allow Leonov to exit the spacecraft

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Speaker 1: into space, and according to Leonov, he was given a

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Speaker 1: special a special thing just in case there were any

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Speaker 1: problems of him getting back into the spacecraft. Because there

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Speaker 1: was no guarantee he was going to be able to

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Speaker 1: get back in once he went out. They tried very

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Speaker 1: hard to design a system so that Leonov would be

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Speaker 1: able to return to the spacecraft, but no one was

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Speaker 1: really sure how it was going to turn out. So

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Speaker 1: just in case, he had a suicide capsule that he

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Speaker 1: could bite into in case he would be unable to

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Speaker 1: go back into the spacecraft, so that he could end

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Speaker 1: his life on his own terms, which is pretty heavy

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Speaker 1: stuff even in a waitless environment. Leonov actually did have

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Speaker 1: some problems getting back into the spacecraft. It fortunately did

390
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Speaker 1: not necessitate suicide, but he was having some issues. He

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Speaker 1: was getting finding difficulty moving through the airlock. His space

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Speaker 1: suited sort of inflated and it made squeezing through the

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Speaker 1: airlock very difficult. So in order to move through the airlock,

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Speaker 1: he was forced to release some air m his suit

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Speaker 1: to release pressure from his suit out into space and

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Speaker 1: give him enough flexibility to move through the airlock and

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Speaker 1: get back inside the spacecraft. Once he was in, it

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Speaker 1: took him and his crewmate more time to seal the spacecraft.

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Speaker 1: They were having issues making sure that the seal was

400
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Speaker 1: actually proper and then justicing the the airlock, and then

401
00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:25,719
Speaker 1: they found it difficult to maneuver inside the spacecraft but

402
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Speaker 1: inside their space suits, so they were you know, they

403
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Speaker 1: had gotten up out of their seats in order to

404
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Speaker 1: do this, and it was hard for them to get

405
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Speaker 1: back into position for re entry. So all of this

406
00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:39,320
Speaker 1: delayed the re entry process by a bit, and so

407
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Speaker 1: things did not go exactly as planned. On top of

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Speaker 1: all that, the vox Shod two had the same re

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Speaker 1: entry problem that the Volstock one, two and five spacecrafts dead.

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Speaker 1: In other words, the re entry module and the equipment

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Speaker 1: module did not have a clean separation. Upon re entry,

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Speaker 1: they were stuck together, which meant that again the red

413
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Speaker 1: Tree module started to spin like crazy until finally the

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00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:09,840
Speaker 1: equipment module broke away. And so by the time everything

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Speaker 1: was said and done, their spacecraft landed about four hundred

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Speaker 1: kilometers away from where they had planned to land, so

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Speaker 1: they were hundreds of miles away from where they were

418
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Speaker 1: supposed to go. Their spacecraft touchdown in a heavily forested

419
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Speaker 1: area that was populated by little critters, you know, like

420
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Speaker 1: wolves and bears. Fortunately, the Soviet government had thought about this.

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Speaker 1: They had supplied them with a pistol and some ammunition

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Speaker 1: just in case of bear attack. You know. They ended

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Speaker 1: up having to bunker down in a freezing cold spacecraft.

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Speaker 1: The heater was no longer working, although the fans were

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Speaker 1: still blowing air, and they it got super cold, like

426
00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:55,400
Speaker 1: it dropped below freezing in that part of Russia, and

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Speaker 1: uh they were able to survive the night. The next day,

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00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:04,960
Speaker 1: a rescue party on skis was able to reach their location,

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Speaker 1: but it was too late for them to leave that

430
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:11,840
Speaker 1: location at that point, so instead the group constructed a

431
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:15,240
Speaker 1: log cabin, a simple log gavin and that's where they

432
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:17,720
Speaker 1: stayed overnight, and then the next day they were able

433
00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:20,960
Speaker 1: to ski to a rescue location. Because the forest was

434
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:23,280
Speaker 1: so thick, there was just no place for helicopters to

435
00:25:23,359 --> 00:25:25,680
Speaker 1: land to pick them up, so they had to ski

436
00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:28,000
Speaker 1: down to a site where helicopters could pick them up

437
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:31,880
Speaker 1: from there. After this second Vashkad program, or mission, rather,

438
00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 1: the whole program concluded. There were a lot other missions

439
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:38,520
Speaker 1: that had been planned as part of this program, but

440
00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:42,560
Speaker 1: by then the Soviet Union was changing its mind. The

441
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:47,600
Speaker 1: regime had changed in the USSR. The the scientists in

442
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:49,920
Speaker 1: charge of the space program, we're finally getting a little

443
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:53,159
Speaker 1: more leverage so that they could demand a more scientific

444
00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:56,840
Speaker 1: approach and fewer missions that were just meant to show

445
00:25:56,920 --> 00:26:00,720
Speaker 1: up the United States. Uh And while they were impressive,

446
00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:04,960
Speaker 1: they weren't. They weren't advancing science and technology very much.

447
00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:09,600
Speaker 1: So that was their objection to that. And plus over

448
00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:12,480
Speaker 1: the United States, NASA was making up ground with the

449
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 1: Gemini project. More about that in just a second, but

450
00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:19,840
Speaker 1: first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor.

451
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:30,320
Speaker 1: So the Vashkad program was again putting the Soviets ahead

452
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:33,360
Speaker 1: of the Americans. But meanwhile work on the Gemini project

453
00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 1: was continuing with enthusiasm. The project actually began in nineteen

454
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,400
Speaker 1: sixty one. That was while the Mercury flights were still

455
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,560
Speaker 1: going on. So the Mercury flights are going and already

456
00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:47,159
Speaker 1: NASA is thinking about the next project. Actually, technically NASA

457
00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:52,959
Speaker 1: was thinking two projects ahead, because between Mercury and Gemini,

458
00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 1: NASA had already determined that they were going to have

459
00:26:56,680 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 1: the Apollo missions. So Gemini was launched as a project

460
00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 1: after Apollo. Although the flights would all happen before Apollo.

461
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:10,040
Speaker 1: The first Gemini mission wouldn't launch until March, which was

462
00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 1: the same month as Vakshad two. So the Gemini was

463
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:16,800
Speaker 1: a two person spacecraft, and the two crew members would

464
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 1: sit side by side in very cramped quarters. You couldn't

465
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:22,119
Speaker 1: really get up and move around very much. You were

466
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:24,560
Speaker 1: pretty much stuck in that seated position unless you were

467
00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:28,240
Speaker 1: popping outside to do a quick extra vehicular activity or spacewalk.

468
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:32,200
Speaker 1: So if you're sitting down, if you're in the left seat,

469
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:34,600
Speaker 1: that would mean that you are the command pilot for

470
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:37,480
Speaker 1: that mission, and in the right seat would be the

471
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:41,119
Speaker 1: pilot for the mission. The seats had an ejection system

472
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:44,159
Speaker 1: inside of them, because unlike the Mercury, which had a

473
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:48,119
Speaker 1: launch escape system incorporated directly into the design of the

474
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:52,160
Speaker 1: launch configuration for the spacecraft, the Gemini did not have that.

475
00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:54,639
Speaker 1: The best they had was an ejection seat. Now I

476
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:57,280
Speaker 1: didn't really cover this when I talked about the Mercury,

477
00:27:57,280 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 1: but if you were to look at a Mercury capsule

478
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:02,880
Speaker 1: on top of a rocket on a launchpad, you would

479
00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:06,960
Speaker 1: notice there's this kind of tower that's on the very

480
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:10,720
Speaker 1: top of the Mercury capsule. That tower was the escape

481
00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:15,840
Speaker 1: mechanism for UH in the case of a launch failure. Essentially,

482
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:19,000
Speaker 1: it was a booster rocket attached via that tower to

483
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:21,600
Speaker 1: the top of the Mercury capsule. So if there was

484
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:25,400
Speaker 1: a launch catastrophe, the rocket would ignite. That would separate

485
00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:28,160
Speaker 1: the crew section of the Mercury spacecraft from the launch

486
00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:32,560
Speaker 1: vehicle to create distance between the capsule and the rocket,

487
00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:37,159
Speaker 1: and then the booster rocket would break away and the

488
00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:41,120
Speaker 1: parachutes would come out and hopefully the crew would land safely.

489
00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 1: The Gemini did not have this, They just had the

490
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:48,360
Speaker 1: ejector seats. They would bring that launch escape mechanism back

491
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:51,880
Speaker 1: for the Apollo missions. So while Mercury was all about

492
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:56,400
Speaker 1: learning more about how space would affect humans, Gemini's purpose

493
00:28:56,440 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 1: was largely to set the foundation for the succeeding Apollo mission,

494
00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:03,000
Speaker 1: which would take people to the Moon. So, as I

495
00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:06,960
Speaker 1: said before, the Apollo program started before the Gemini program.

496
00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 1: But the goal of the Apollo program was getting to

497
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 1: the Moon and getting back to Earth safely. And NASA said, hey,

498
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:18,280
Speaker 1: you know what, we probably need an intermediary step between Mercury,

499
00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:21,280
Speaker 1: where people went into orbit, and Apollo, where people are

500
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 1: going to go to the Moon. We're gonna need to

501
00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:26,320
Speaker 1: test a whole lot of different technology. We're going to

502
00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:29,720
Speaker 1: have to refine processes. We're gonna have to figure out

503
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:34,040
Speaker 1: how to do specific maneuvers like putting a spacecraft into

504
00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:38,920
Speaker 1: a docking mode to uh interconnect with another spacecraft, and

505
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:41,240
Speaker 1: how to do orbital maneuvers. These are all things that

506
00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:44,520
Speaker 1: the Mercury Capsule could not do. It was not equipped

507
00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:47,600
Speaker 1: to do that. But they would need to perfect this

508
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:52,120
Speaker 1: before they committed in the Apollo program. So President Kennedy

509
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 1: chartered the Apollo program in May nineteen sixty one. Gem

510
00:29:55,680 --> 00:29:58,440
Speaker 1: and I would not get a formal announcement until January

511
00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:01,760
Speaker 1: ninety two. The both of those programs were already in

512
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:06,760
Speaker 1: development before those specific dates. Now that meant that Gemini

513
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:11,400
Speaker 1: missions were going to focus on things like prolonged space flights,

514
00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:15,840
Speaker 1: extra vehicular activity, or spacewalks, orbital maneuvers. These were all

515
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:19,840
Speaker 1: going to be critical components of Apollo missions because landing

516
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:22,480
Speaker 1: on the Moon would mean that part of your spacecraft

517
00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:27,200
Speaker 1: would detach from the command module and then land on

518
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:29,400
Speaker 1: the Moon, and so you would have a crew of

519
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:32,920
Speaker 1: three with Apollo. Spoiler alert for next episode and two

520
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:34,959
Speaker 1: of the crew members would go down in the lander

521
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:36,880
Speaker 1: and land on the Moon. The third one would stay

522
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:40,080
Speaker 1: aboard on the command module, and then ultimately those two

523
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:42,120
Speaker 1: people would have to get back into the lander that

524
00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:45,440
Speaker 1: would launch off the surface of the Moon, rendezvous with

525
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:48,360
Speaker 1: the command module and DOC. So there were a lot

526
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:50,920
Speaker 1: of things that had to be worked out in order

527
00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:55,360
Speaker 1: to make that technology possible, and that's why Gemini existed.

528
00:30:55,440 --> 00:30:58,920
Speaker 1: It was to be the working ground to create all

529
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:02,840
Speaker 1: that technology. The Gemini program was marked by both triumph

530
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:05,840
Speaker 1: and tragedy. It would put the US back in the

531
00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:09,720
Speaker 1: lead for the space race ultimately, but it also involved

532
00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:13,640
Speaker 1: the deaths of three of the astronauts involved. In nineteen

533
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:17,680
Speaker 1: sixty four, Theodore Freeman died in a crash while bringing

534
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 1: his T thirty eight training jet in for a landing.

535
00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:24,440
Speaker 1: The cause of the crash was actually a goose flew

536
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,200
Speaker 1: and collided with the cockpit as the jet was landing,

537
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:31,720
Speaker 1: and it collided with such force that it broke part

538
00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:35,080
Speaker 1: of the cockpit and plexiglass flew out the cockpit into

539
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:38,080
Speaker 1: the engine intake and caused the jet to crash. And

540
00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:42,240
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty six, Elliott C. And Charles Bassett, who

541
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 1: had been chosen to be the crew members for Gemini nine.

542
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:49,600
Speaker 1: They died in an accident on a training jet. H

543
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:53,800
Speaker 1: Elliot Sea was piloting the plane. The weather was really bad.

544
00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:57,240
Speaker 1: There was rain, there was fog, there was snow. Ultimately,

545
00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:02,800
Speaker 1: an investigation concluded that pilot was at fault for the crash,

546
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:05,719
Speaker 1: and so the backup crew for Gemini nine would end

547
00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:09,680
Speaker 1: up taking their place. In many ways, the Gemini spacecraft

548
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:13,320
Speaker 1: was sort of an ambig end version of the Mercury capsule.

549
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:16,320
Speaker 1: NASA had learned a lot from the Mercury project, however,

550
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:19,560
Speaker 1: so it wasn't identical. There were some major differences. One

551
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:22,040
Speaker 1: of those was that NASA created a modular system for

552
00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:26,200
Speaker 1: spacecraft components, which allowed different teams to work on the

553
00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:30,120
Speaker 1: various systems in their individual modules, and so when they

554
00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:33,680
Speaker 1: tested these before ever launching anything, making sure everything works

555
00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:37,600
Speaker 1: with everything else. If a system failed or proved incompatible

556
00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 1: with the capsule design, the team could take that module

557
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:43,800
Speaker 1: back out and they could make adjustments to it, fixing it,

558
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:46,600
Speaker 1: changing it, and all the other modules that had been

559
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:49,160
Speaker 1: working just fine could remain in place. They didn't have

560
00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:52,400
Speaker 1: to be messed with. So since it wasn't all incorporated

561
00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:56,880
Speaker 1: directly together in one big mess. Then you could make

562
00:32:56,960 --> 00:32:59,600
Speaker 1: more granular changes and you could have a lot of

563
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:04,200
Speaker 1: pair allel development going on simultaneously, which of course saved

564
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:06,560
Speaker 1: a huge amount of time and effort, and ultimately that

565
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:10,560
Speaker 1: also meant saved money. Gemini also relied heavily on solid

566
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:13,680
Speaker 1: state electronics, taking advantage of advances and electronics that had

567
00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:17,400
Speaker 1: developed while the Mercury project was already going, so they

568
00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:21,280
Speaker 1: were more sophisticated spacecraft, and like the Mercury, the Gemini

569
00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:24,440
Speaker 1: was meant to land in the water. Originally, NASA had

570
00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:27,520
Speaker 1: wanted to incorporate gear that would allow a touchdown on land,

571
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:30,880
Speaker 1: but time constraints meant there just wasn't enough time to

572
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:33,640
Speaker 1: do that, so they decided to go with the true

573
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:36,680
Speaker 1: splash down approach. They had tried it, they knew it worked,

574
00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:40,160
Speaker 1: They're gonna stick with it. The Gemini capsule also had

575
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:43,880
Speaker 1: a detachable module called the Adapter module at the base

576
00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:49,720
Speaker 1: of it. Inside that compartment were some various systems like propulsion, electrical, water,

577
00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:52,760
Speaker 1: and oxygen, as well as the retro rockets, so it

578
00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:58,280
Speaker 1: was separate from the cabin that the crew never sat in. Technically,

579
00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:03,400
Speaker 1: the Gemini had five sections had the equipment section, a

580
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 1: retrograde section, and both of those were inside the adapter module.

581
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:09,680
Speaker 1: It had the cabin section that's where the crew sat.

582
00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:13,040
Speaker 1: It had a re entry control system, and a rendezvous

583
00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:15,920
Speaker 1: and recovery section, so that's kind of working from the

584
00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:19,080
Speaker 1: base up. The equipment section was the part that would

585
00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:24,080
Speaker 1: also interface with the launch vehicle. That's space talk saying,

586
00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:27,759
Speaker 1: that's the part that would attach to the rocket. So

587
00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:32,360
Speaker 1: the rocket for the original Gemini mission was a Titan two.

588
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:35,320
Speaker 1: They would use other rockets later on in the Gemini program.

589
00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:37,840
Speaker 1: Fun fact that Titan two's original purpose was to be

590
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:41,799
Speaker 1: an intercontinental ballistic missile or ICBM, and I'll talk more

591
00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 1: about that in an upcoming episode of tech Stuff. So

592
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:47,040
Speaker 1: let's say you're looking at this Gemini spacecraft. Are looking

593
00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:50,520
Speaker 1: at it from top to bottom. The the conical section,

594
00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:53,760
Speaker 1: not the rocket, but just the spacecraft part for the Gemini,

595
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:57,799
Speaker 1: the tippy tippy top, the pointy bit was the rendezvous

596
00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:00,560
Speaker 1: and recovery section that had rendezvous ray it are inside

597
00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:02,640
Speaker 1: of it, and also the two parachutes that would be

598
00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:06,080
Speaker 1: used to help stabilize and slow down the spacecraft in

599
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:08,879
Speaker 1: its descent. The next segment down was the re entry

600
00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:12,520
Speaker 1: control system, which held fuel and oxidizer tanks and attitude

601
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:15,960
Speaker 1: control thrusters. I always like talking about attitude control with

602
00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:18,200
Speaker 1: spacecraft because it sounds like a spacecraft was kind of

603
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:20,439
Speaker 1: getting out of line and then you just you turn

604
00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:22,839
Speaker 1: on attitude control. It's like giving it a time out,

605
00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:28,040
Speaker 1: except we're really talking about orientation, not like personality attitude.

606
00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:31,839
Speaker 1: Next down the line was the cabin section, the place

607
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:34,520
Speaker 1: where the crew sat the two crew members of each

608
00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:39,520
Speaker 1: Gemini mission. Then was the retrograde and equipment sections. Retrograde

609
00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:42,520
Speaker 1: on top of equipment, but this is the base of

610
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:46,680
Speaker 1: that conical section. Both in the adapter module. The retrograde

611
00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:49,680
Speaker 1: had de orbit motors and thrusters, and the equipment section

612
00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:52,799
Speaker 1: had more control thrusters and um the systems I had

613
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:56,239
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, and these were all meant to allow the

614
00:35:56,280 --> 00:36:00,880
Speaker 1: Gemini to maneuver in space. And one of the really

615
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:03,840
Speaker 1: really big changes between Mercury and gem and I was

616
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:06,680
Speaker 1: that gem and I could actually move into a different orbit,

617
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:10,399
Speaker 1: So Mercury could reorient itself for re entry. It could

618
00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:13,560
Speaker 1: change its orientation with respect to the Earth, but it

619
00:36:13,600 --> 00:36:17,600
Speaker 1: couldn't change its orbit. Jim and I could it had

620
00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:21,120
Speaker 1: the thrusters and the fuel aboard to allow for that,

621
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:23,640
Speaker 1: so you could actually move the Gemini from one orbit

622
00:36:23,680 --> 00:36:28,320
Speaker 1: into another Earth orbit. There were ten manned Gemini missions.

623
00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:32,960
Speaker 1: Dieck Slayton, who was one of the original Mercury astronauts

624
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:35,560
Speaker 1: but was never allowed to fly a Mercury mission he

625
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:38,960
Speaker 1: was grounded due to irregularities detected in his heartbeat, would

626
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:41,600
Speaker 1: become the director of flight crew Operations, so was his

627
00:36:41,719 --> 00:36:45,360
Speaker 1: job to pick which astronauts would serve as crew aboard

628
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:49,479
Speaker 1: the various missions. Those missions included a couple of really

629
00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 1: notable ones. They were all notable, but there are a

630
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:54,880
Speaker 1: couple of standouts. Jim and I eight in nineteen sixty

631
00:36:55,000 --> 00:37:00,480
Speaker 1: six saw Neil Armstrong UH and UH David Randall Scott

632
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:04,560
Speaker 1: deal with a real emergency. The mission saw the Jeini

633
00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:08,320
Speaker 1: spacecraft dock with an unmanned target vehicle out in space.

634
00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:12,040
Speaker 1: This was the first time any manned vehicle had docked

635
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:15,840
Speaker 1: with another vehicle out in space, so a first in

636
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:18,360
Speaker 1: the world. One of the ways that the United States

637
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:20,960
Speaker 1: was able to start getting a lead on the Soviet Union.

638
00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:24,200
Speaker 1: But while it was docked, one of the Gemini's thrusters

639
00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:27,360
Speaker 1: malfunctioned and it sent the craft into an unplanned spin,

640
00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:31,440
Speaker 1: so Armstrong and Scott had to work to undock the

641
00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:34,799
Speaker 1: Gemini and Armstrong had to try and regain control of

642
00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:38,840
Speaker 1: the spacecraft. They were forced to conduct an emergency landing.

643
00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:42,200
Speaker 1: It was the first time any US manned space mission

644
00:37:42,239 --> 00:37:45,080
Speaker 1: required an emergency landing, but they were able to do it,

645
00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:48,280
Speaker 1: and obviously they both survived, and they would also both

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00:37:48,280 --> 00:37:51,640
Speaker 1: go on to participate in Apollo missions. In fact, both

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00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:55,360
Speaker 1: of them would be UH two of the astronauts to

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00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:58,440
Speaker 1: walk on the Moon, which is kind of cool. The

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00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:01,520
Speaker 1: longest of all the Gemini missions would happen right in

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00:38:01,520 --> 00:38:05,800
Speaker 1: the middle of the program. It was the Gemini seven,

651
00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:10,720
Speaker 1: which was just a few hours shy of lasting two

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00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:15,520
Speaker 1: full weeks in low Earth orbit. It made two hundred

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00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:18,759
Speaker 1: six orbits of the Earth. And again this was one

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00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:23,480
Speaker 1: of those necessities to show how long term exposure to

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00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:27,279
Speaker 1: the rigors of space travel would affect people. If you're

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00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:28,839
Speaker 1: gonna go all the way to the Moon and back,

657
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:31,319
Speaker 1: that's a journey that takes a couple of days, So

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00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:35,400
Speaker 1: you want to make sure absolutely certain that human beings

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00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:40,239
Speaker 1: can withstand those those uh stresses that are put upon them. Now,

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00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:43,160
Speaker 1: in our next episode, I'll look more closely at the

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00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:47,560
Speaker 1: Apollo and soy U's capsules and and what made those

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00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:51,840
Speaker 1: spacecraft special. Talk more about the design of the Apollo

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00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:55,759
Speaker 1: spacecraft and how it was able to make such an

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00:38:55,800 --> 00:38:59,160
Speaker 1: amazing accomplishment like landing a segment on the Moon, and

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00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:02,880
Speaker 1: only that, but taking off from the Moon and reconnecting

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00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:05,400
Speaker 1: with the command module. That's the part that really blows

667
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:07,319
Speaker 1: my mind, not just that we were able to get

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00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:10,320
Speaker 1: people to the Moon, but that we were able to

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00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:13,680
Speaker 1: get them back again. That's phenomenal. That will be our

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00:39:13,719 --> 00:39:15,799
Speaker 1: next episode. After that, we're gonna take a closer look

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00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:17,480
Speaker 1: at rockets, and after that we're gonna look at the

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00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:19,520
Speaker 1: Space Shuttle. So we've got a lot more space to come.

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00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:22,880
Speaker 1: If you guys have any suggestions for future episodes of

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00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:28,040
Speaker 1: tech Stuff, possibly not involving space at all, send me

675
00:39:28,080 --> 00:39:31,279
Speaker 1: a message. The email address is tech Stuff at how

676
00:39:31,320 --> 00:39:33,720
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. You can drop me a line

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00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:36,240
Speaker 1: on Facebook or Twitter. The handle there is tech Stuff

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00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:39,680
Speaker 1: hs W. Remember we've got a merch store now over

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00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:42,880
Speaker 1: at t public dot com slash tech stuff. That's t

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00:39:43,200 --> 00:39:46,279
Speaker 1: e public dot com slash tech stuff. If you've ever

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00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:50,560
Speaker 1: wanted a tech stuff T shirt or coffee mug. Now's

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00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:54,520
Speaker 1: your chance. Don't forget. You can also follow us on Instagram.

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Speaker 1: I hope to see you there and I'll talk to

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00:39:56,320 --> 00:40:05,000
Speaker 1: you again really soon. For more on this and thousands

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00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:17,279
Speaker 1: of other topics. Is that how stuff works dot com