Product Description

CD-ROM and Book. Lost in the glare of Apollo's success, the Gemini program is often forgotten. Without the ten successful manned Gemini missions NASA could not have accomplished Kennedy's seemingly impossible goal of landing a man on the moon in the 1960s. Gemini 6 the fifth manned flight of America's two-man spacecraft. Aboard were Commander Wally Schirra and rookie pilot Tom Stafford. Their original mission flight plan was to attempt the first ever docking and rendezvous in space, an essential step if the pilots flying Apollo would ever be able to meet up in orbit around the moon. The Soviet Union had claimed the first space rendezvous but many felt that unless the pilot was in control and able to manoeuvre around the accompanying vehicle it could not truly be called a rendezvous. On October 25th 1965 the target vehicle, known as Atlas/Agenda failed to make orbit and so the crew of Gemini 6 were suddenly presented with a totally revised and audacious flight plan. The long duration Gemini 7 mission was already scheduled for launch and so the crew of Gemini 6 were told that NASA would attempt a double manned mission and rendezvous. This was undoubtedly a risky proposition which would stretch the NASA infra-structure to its limits. On December 15th 1965 ace pilot Schirra and rendezvous maestro Stafford closed to within a meter of Gemini 7 and America was one step closer to the moon. Includes: Windows CD-ROM featuring: an exclusive recent interview with Commander Wally Schirra; all of the still photo images taken during the mission; two 28 minutes - 'Gemini Science' and 'Gemini 7 and 6' plus the complete 16 mm film from the mission.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #470309 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Review
"An essential read, Apogee should be applauded for producing this material in such an attractive format..." -- Spaceflight, August 2001.

About the Author
Robert Godwin, Editor

Customer Reviews

The best book available to the public about Project Gemini.
Having read all of the Apollo series of Godwin's books, I was a little reluctant to buy this, assuming that it would be rather more like the Apollo 8 to 10 volumes than those of Apollo 11 to 13. I guessed the wrong way round, in fact this book is the best in the series so far! It may look the same thickness as Apollo 8, but it contains more than twice as much useful information.

In summary, Project Gemini had to prove three major capabillities: that man could live in space long enough to get to and from the moon, EVA, and orbital manoeuvring leading to Rendezvous and Docking. Action packed Gemini 6 fits into this scheme as being the first planned docking, and first successful rendezvous in orbit. So if you want to know a lot more than you could possibly ever need about rendezvous (without the maths), or what it felt like to sit on a rocket that lights up, shuts down and goes nowhere ("death or the ejection seat"), then this is the book.

The selection of reports is such that it includes a transcript of the Gemini 7/6 Astronaut Post-flight Press Conference of 30 December 1965. As a result, this is also the book to read to find out how little fun spending 14 days on orbit in a space the size of a small car must have been!

To conclude, Gemini 6 was a real, and little known landmark in aviation history. These reports tell the tale very well. I highly recommend its purchase.

Gemini - the missing link between Mercury + Apollo
"Missing" because people seem to know little about the project generally.

But how important Gemini was as the stepping stone to the moon. In showing the importance of long-term flight, EVA, manouvering and rendezvous the Gemini missions proved the crucial elements that moon missions would rely on in the hard fought race to the moon in the late 60`s.

This particular volume follows Godwin`s now tried and tested format of mixing the contemporary documents, reports and press info packs into one place, giving a good overview of the mission objectives and acheivements. There is more than enough hard info and data to satisfy the tech-heads and the book also has much to offer the space-oriented grazer who simply wants to know more about the project. Added to this, one has the benfit of a short but nonetheless interesting interview with the mission commander Wally Schirra, distinguished in being the only astronaut to have flown Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions.

All in all this is a great book for a straight read, for a wander through or as a source text and I am sure that anyone who has enjoyed the other books in the series will not be disappointed by this one. Well, I wasn`t anyway - but then I`ve got all the others too!

I wonder what will be next - more significant Mercury or Gemini, or will it be Apollo 13 et al? Certainly , the scientific acheivements of the missions from 15 onwards will be fertile ground indeed. Can`t wait!