Space: The Moon in Their Grasp

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Uncomfortable as they were, Borman and Lovell found time in between their duties for medicine to make contributions to other sciences. By using a hand-held sextant to sight stars setting on the earth's horizon, they were able to determine their position in space and demonstrate that astronauts can navigate without the aid of a computer. In an experiment for the Defense Department, they tracked the payload of a Minuteman missile, took infra-red measurements of the plasma sheath of ionized air that was created when it plunged back into the atmosphere below them. Another experiment, communication with earth through a laser beam, was only partially successful. After several fruitless attempts, the astronauts spotted the blue-green beam from a laser-transmitting station in Hawaii, aimed their own beam toward it, but were unable to keep it in sight long enough for voice communications.

High Promise. Last week's impressive demonstrations of precision launchings and splash-downs, flawless electronic communications and computations, smooth orbital maneuvering and stolid endurance, held out high promise for the remaining five flights of the Gemini program. Gemini 8, scheduled for early next year, will attempt to perform the original mission of Gemini 6: docking in space. If the necessary modifications of the backfiring Agena cannot be made in time, NASA will use a hastily contrived "Augmented Target Docking Adapter." One way or another, Gemini 8 will have a target vehicle.

Later Geminis will fly two-day missions, primarily to practice rendezvous and docking; while on earth orbit, they will simulate the maneuver that will eventually bring Apollo's Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) back to the moon-orbiting command capsule for its return trip to earth. Next year will also see the first flights of unmanned Apollo vehicles, perhaps even a manned orbit of the three-man vehicle.

The ambitious and complex Apollo mission seems less formidable now as a result of the Gemini performance. The 14-day flight of Gemini 7 surpassed the total number of Russian man-hours in space, but more important, it equaled the longest scheduled duration of a successful Apollo round trip to the moon. And it apparently proved that man can survive such long periods of weightlessness without permanent ill effects.

Wally Schirra's seemingly effortless piloting of Gemini 6 made the intricate Apollo space navigation seem more feasible. On the way to the moon, for example, the LEM will have to be detached from the back of the command and service modules, then reattached in front. When the Apollo is finally in orbit around the moon, two of its three crewmen will climb into the LEM and head for the moon's surface. After from four to 34 hours of exploration, they will blast off and rendezvous with the orbiting Apollo for the return trip to earth, using much the same techniques employed so successfully by Gemini 6 and its partner Gemini 7.