Space: Closing the Gap

(7 of 9)

White: "Get out in front where I can see you again." White moved to a better position and Grissom told the space walker: "You've got about five minutes." But Ed White was enjoying himself immensely: "The sun in space is not blinding but it's quite nice. I'm coming back down on the spacecraft. I can sit out here and see the whole California coast."

"Right Over Houston." A few moments later, McDivitt cried excitedly to Grissom: "Hey, Gus, I don't know if you read us, but we're right over Houston." White chimed in: "We're looking right down on Houston." McDivitt to White: "Go on out and look. Yeah, that's Galveston Bay right there. Hey, Ed, can you see it on your side of the spacecraft?" White: "I'll get a picture."

Discussing their photographic endeavors, White told McDivitt: "I've only shot about three or four." Said

McDivitt: "All right, I've taken a lot, but they're not very good. You're in too close for most of them. I finally put the focus down to about eight feet or so."

The two kept chattering over VOX, a voice-activated system that cut off messages from controllers on earth whenever McDivitt and White were conversing. Again and again Grissom tried to break through: "Gemini 4, Houston. Gemini 4, Houston." The space twins kept talking to each other. Finally, McDivitt acknowledged the calls from earth: "Got any messages for us?"

"Ed! Come in Here!" Grissom burst in urgently: "Gemini 4, get back in!" McDivitt replied: "O.K. We're trying to come back in now." Grissom, more calmly now: "Roger, we've been trying to talk to you for a while here."

McDivitt: "Back in. Come on."

White: "Hate to come back to you, but I'm coming."

McDivitt: "O.K."

White: "I'm trying."

McDivitt: "O.K. O.K. Don't wear yourself out now. Just come on in. How you doing there? O.K. Whoops! Take it easy now."

White: "O.K., I'm right on top of it now."

McDivitt: "Come on in then."

White: "The handhold on the spacecraft is fantastic. Aren't you going to hold my hand?"

McDivitt: "No! Come on in. Ed!

Come in here!"

White: "All right."

McDivitt: "O.K., let's not lose this camera now. I don't quite have it. A little bit more. O.K., I've got it. Come on. Let's get back in here before it gets dark."

Tired, Safe & Elated. Grissom chimed in again: "Gemini 4, Houston." White: "I'm fixing to come in the house." McDivitt: "Any message for us, Houston?" Grissom: "Yeah! Get back in!" McDivitt: "He's standing in the seat now and his legs are down below the instrument panel." Grissom: "O.K. Get him back in now." McDivitt: "He's coming in. He's having some trouble getting back in the space cabin, looks like." Grissom: "You got your cabin lights up bright in case you hit darkness?"

Moments later, White was back inside—tired but safe and elated as Gemini 4 sped through the black night over the eastern Atlantic Ocean.