In preparation for lunar missions, astronauts needed to master working outside their spacecraft, and for the first few Gemini missions, training for spacewalks consisted of parabolic aircraft flights that provided brief 30-second episodes of weightlessness, overhead suspension, and air-bearing tables. They planned to return to Earth the following day, with a splashdown in the western Atlantic Ocean, wrapping up the four-day mission and the Gemini program. After releasing the tether and the Agena, Aldrin would conduct his third spacewalk, another standup activity to take more star photographs and jettison any unneeded equipment. On the third day, Lovell and Aldrin would undock from the Agena and back away to the length of the 100-foot tether to attempt a gravity-gradient experiment. ![]() He would then translate back to the Agena and conduct similar tests at a workstation there. There, he would slip into foot restraints and, at a workstation, perform several tasks such as cutting a cable, connecting and disconnecting cables, and tightening bolts, to evaluate the effectiveness of the restraint systems. On the third day, Aldrin would perform his second spacewalk, this one at the end of an umbilical allowing him to translate first to the Agena to attach a 100-foot tether to link the two spacecraft together, then to the rear of the Gemini’s adapter section. ![]() After the spacewalk, they would fire the Agena’s PPS to recircularize their orbit. On the second day, while still in this elliptical orbit, Aldrin would perform his first spacewalk, staying in the open Gemini hatch to install a temporary handrail to the Agena to aid in the second spacewalk and take photographs of stars in the ultraviolet spectrum, a spectrum of light that is 80% filtered out by Earth’s atmosphere. They would fire the Agena’s primary propulsion system (PPS) to raise the high point of their orbit to 460 miles. The first objective involved performing a rendezvous and docking with the Agena XII target vehicle, launched 90 minutes before Lovell and Aldrin. 31, 1966 press conference at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Lovell and Aldrin, along with their backups Cooper and Cernan, described their upcoming four-day mission to reporters. Gordon Cooper and Gemini IX veteran Eugene A. In June 1966, NASA selected Gemini VII veteran Lovell and spaceflight rookie Aldrin as the prime crew for Gemini XII, with Mercury 9 and Gemini V veteran L. To overcome significant issues during several previous spacewalks, astronauts and mission managers placed great emphasis on the use of neutral buoyancy as a high-fidelity tool for spacewalk training. “Buzz” Aldrin during their four-day Gemini XII mission, the final flight of the program, included docking with a target vehicle, performing three spacewalks, and conducting a tethered spacecraft experiment. The principal tasks for astronauts James A. The nine previous Gemini missions in 19 demonstrated the spacecraft’s space worthiness, the basic feasibility of spacewalking, extended flight durations to 14 days, and demonstrated space rendezvous and docking techniques. ![]() These techniques included rendezvous and docking, spacewalking, and ensuring that spacecraft and astronauts could function for at least eight days, the minimum time for a round-trip lunar mission. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth before the end of the 1960s. The primary objectives of Project Gemini included proving the techniques required for the Apollo Program to fulfill President John F.
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