Space: The Moon in Their Grasp

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As the two capsules groped for each other, Mission Control in Houston monitored their progress through the Coastal Sentry, a tracking ship bobbing in the sea off Formosa. "The range is 20,000 feet," reported the Coastal Sentry, "18,200 . . . 15,000 . . ."

Then, relayed from Gemini 6, came Astronaut Tom Stafford's barely audible voice: "1.7 [nautical miles], 1.3 . . ." Suddenly there was silence, as the orbiting capsules passed out of radio range of the tracking ship. A short time later, they coasted around the dark side of the earth into brilliant morning sunshine. Astronauts Stafford and Schirra found themselves looking into the windows of Gemini 7, at the bearded faces of Astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell.

The capsules drew closer as Schirra carefully fired short bursts on his rocket thrusters. As they drifted into radio range of another tracking ship off Hawaii, Stafford's voice crackled through the air, reporting the 120-ft. rendezvous. That laconic message set off an enthusiastic celebration in the Mission Control room in Houston. Shirtsleeved controllers jumped to their feet, cheered, broke out American flags, and pinned them to their consoles. Chris Kraft, having puffed on his traditional "mission accomplished" cigar, held a glass of champagne aloft and described the rendezvous as "an incredible performance, the biggest milestone since the flight of John Glenn."

Call a Policeman. But there was more to come. Firing short blips on his thrusters, Schirra moved Gemini 6 to within 10 ft. of Gemini 7 while the astronauts exchanged wisecracks. "There seems to be a lot of traffic up here," said Schirra. "Call a policeman," retorted Borman.

"You've sure got big beards," Schirra radioed to the Gemini 7 crew.

"For once we're in style," said Borman in reply.

While they chatted, Gemini 6 swung in a small orbit around Gemini 7, which was holding its own maneuvering to a minimum to conserve its dwindling fuel supply. For 5½ hours, the spacecraft continued to orbit in formation, their distance apart varying between 20 ft. and 100 ft., while the astronauts took color movies and still pictures in the harsh, eerie sunlight of space. They photographed plumes from the jet thrusters and visually inspected each other's spacecraft.

At one point, Schirra reported sighting "white flakes or bubbles and things" emerging from Gemini 7's adapter section. Gemini 7, it turned out, was purging its fuel cells, releasing water and impurities into space, where they immediately froze into particles of ice. When Gemini 6 joshed Gemini 7 about the mysterious straps trailing from its adapter, Frank Borman was quick to retort that similar straps were dangling from Gemini 6. The straps turned out to be the remnants of the covers for the shaped explosives that severed the spacecraft from the second stage of the Titan II rockets. The astronauts also noticed that the windows in both craft had been dulled by a kind of space-age smog that probably came from particles released during the firing of thrusters.