Dec 12 1965
From The Space Library
Attempt to launch Gemini VI from ETR was unsuccessful when an electric plug connecting the Titan II booster to the launch pad fell loose 21/4 sec, early, causing the automatic sequencer to shut down the engine booster 12 sec. after ignition. Inside the Titan II a wire extended from the tail plug to tap a circuit which Carried current from the batteries to an intervalometer-electric clock-which controls the first 21/2 min, of powered flight, When the plug shook loose prematurely and started the clock, signals that liftoff had occurred were sent to the Titan II's automatic pilot, local guidance stations, and an automatic sequencing device at KSC Launch Control Center. The sequencer registered the mishap and shut down Titan II's engines. Astronauts Stafford and Schirra remained calm throughout the misfire with Command Pilot Schirra rejecting the option to actuate the ejection seats. The astronauts were removed 99 min, later from the space- craft and the launch rescheduled for Dec. 15. (Hines, Wash. Eve. Star, 12/13/65, Al; Simons, Wash, Post, 12/13/65, Al; MSC Gemini VII/Gemini VI Fact Sheet)
Statement by President Johnson on the delay of the Gemini VI flight: "We are all disappointed that GEMINI VI did not go off as expected. But our disappointment is exceeded by our pride in Astronauts Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford and the flight directors of NASA, With the world watching, they acted with remarkable courage in the face of danger and potential disaster. Their eager desire and determination to try again proves once more that men are the real heroes-and the essential factor-in space exploration." (Pres. Doc., 12/20/65, 587)
Soviet Cosmonauts Konstantin P. Feoktistov and Lt. Boris B. Yegorov, two of three crew members in the 24-hr, spaceflight of VOSKHOD I, launched Oct. 12, 1964, had experienced space sickness during the flight, Tass reported. They felt nausea while in the state of weightlessness and imagined themselves to be suspended in strange positions. The disorders, Tass said, stemmed from specific irritations to the vestibular organs and were related to the duration of training and what Tass called the cosmonauts' "sensitivity to imponderability." (Tass, 12/12/65; Grose, NYT, 12/13/65, 47)
Radio Prague disclosed that at a November meeting in Moscow of Soviet-bloc countries the U.S.S.R. had agreed to launch Communist nations' artificial satellites, sounding rockets, and probes for scientific research, Countries involved were preparing research programs which would be announced in 1966. (NYT , 12/12/65, 141)
Sigvard Eklund, general director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told Tass that Soviet Union had a new type of nuclear reactor that could be used as a power station in space, He said the Romashka (Daisy) reactor provided electricity "on the basis of direct conversion of heat given out by a chain reaction from nuclear fission," and that such a source could "feed scientific instruments on sputniks or satellites." (Wash, Post, 12/12/65, A28)
Analysts of the 1966 budget of the U.S.S.R. had suggested that the 9.9% increase in expenditures for scientific research might be aimed at intensification of the space race, Harry Schwartz reported in the New York Times. (Schwartz, NYT, 12/12/65, Fl)
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