THROWBACKTHISDAY; 1966 – NASA launches Gemini 12.

           

                                  

 

On thisday November 11 1966 NASA launches Gemini 12. Gemini 12 (officially Gemini XII) was a 1966 manned spaceflight in NASA's Project Gemini. It was the 10th and final manned Gemini flight, the 18th manned American flight and, including X-15 flights over 100 kilometers (54 nmi), the 26th spaceflight of all time. Gemini XII was the last U.S. space flight until Apollo 7, twenty three months later. The tragedy of Apollo 1

 in January 1967 grounded NASA manned missions and multiple changes were made to vehicle design, astronaut suits, astronaut training, and NASA mana

At the completion of the previous Gemini flight, the program still had not demonstrated that an astronaut could work easily and efficiently outside the spacecraft. In preparation for Gemini XII new, improved restraints were added to the outside of the capsule, and a new technique—underwater training—was introduced, which would become a staple of future space-walk simulation. Aldrin's two-hour, 20-minute tethered space-walk, during which he photographed star fields, retrieved a micrometeorite collector and did other chores, at last demonstrated the feasibility of extravehicular activity. Two more stand-up EVAs also went smoothly, as did the by-now routine rendezvous and docking with an Agena which was done "manually" using the onboard computer and charts when a rendezvous radar failed. The climb to a higher orbit, however, was canceled because of a problem with the Agenabooster.

Many documentaries afterward largely credit the spacewalk innovations, including the underwater training, to Aldrin himself.^[4]

Gemini 12 was designed to perform rendezvous and docking with the Agena target vehicle, to conduct three extra-vehicular activity (EVA)operations, to conduct a tethered stationkeeping exercise, to perform docked maneuvers using the Agena propulsion system to change orbit, and demonstrate an automatic reentry.

THROWBACKTHISDAY; makes it 49 years and TBT Blog remembers.