Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Gemini Guidance Computer (sometimes Gemini Spacecraft On-Board Computer (OBC)) was a digital, serial computer designed for Project Gemini, America's second human spaceflight project. [3] The computer, which facilitated the control of mission maneuvers, was designed by the IBM Federal Systems Division .
In March 1965, NASA approved the transfer of the Gemini 2 capsule to the USAF for modification into the first prototype of the Gemini B capsule. [5] On 3 November 1965, the first Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) and Gemini B suborbital test mission was launched. [5] It is the first capsule to ever be flown twice in space. [6]
Gemini 11 (officially Gemini XI) [2] was the ninth crewed spaceflight mission of NASA's Project Gemini, which flew from September 12 to 15, 1966.It was the 17th crewed American flight and the 25th spaceflight to that time (includes X-15 flights over 100 kilometers (62 mi; 54 nmi)).
Gemini 1 was the first mission in NASA's Gemini program. [2] An uncrewed test flight of the Gemini spacecraft, its main objectives were to test the structural integrity of the new spacecraft and modified Titan II launch vehicle. It was also the first test of the new tracking and communication systems for the Gemini program and provided training ...
Astronauts manually flew Project Gemini with control sticks, but computers flew most of Project Apollo except briefly during lunar landings. [6] Each Moon flight carried two AGCs, one each in the command module and the Apollo Lunar Module, with the exception of Apollo 7 which was an Earth orbit mission and Apollo 8 which did not need a lunar module for its lunar orbit mission.
The network expanded for Project Gemini's longer flights which included rendezvous operations involving two spacecraft. A move toward increased computerization and decreased voice support for Gemini made a more centralized network possible with fewer primary stations and more secondary stations, although those major facilities were better equipped.
Using the Gemini spacecraft for a crewed Lunar landing was considered as early as the original Mercury Mark II proposal which led to the Gemini program. [15] The initial proposal was for a Lunar orbit rendezvous mission, using a Gemini spacecraft and a lightweight, open cockpit lander, launched by a Saturn C-3 rocket.
On later missions, the Agena's engine was fired while the Gemini spacecraft was docked, in order to boost the spacecraft to a higher orbit, and to bring it back again. During the Gemini 11 mission, an elliptical orbit with an apogee of 1,375 kilometers (854 mi) was reached, which set an altitude record for crewed spaceflight that held until ...