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Old August 28th, 2020 #1
Nikola Bijeliti
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Default Gemini V and Sealab II

Scott Carpenter and Gordon Cooper were two of the original seven Mercury astronauts. Fifty-five years ago, Cooper was commander of the Gemini V mission, which set a record at the time of seven days in space, and Carpenter was commander of the Sealab II mission, setting a record of 30 days underwater at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.


On August 29, 1965, Gordon Cooper, flying abord Gemini V, spoke with Scott Carpenter, serving abord Sealab II, in an experiment to test radio transmission. Here is a transcript of the conversation:
Quote:
[Elliot] See: Now Sea Lab 2 is standing by and is ready to talk to you at this time.
Cooper: OK.
See: You can go ahead and call them.
Cooper: Hello, Sea Lab, Gemini V, Cooper.
Sea Lab 2: Sea Lab 2 transmitting from 200 feet down off La Jolla. How do you read, Gordo?
Cooper: Fine, how you doing, Scott?
Sea Lab 2: Roger, Gordo, you're doing a great job. We almost missed you. We just got down this afternoon and I'm glad we got a chance to tell you what a great job you guys are doing. I hope you have a very pleasant reentry shortly. Over.
Cooper: . . . . .
Sea Lab 2: Thank you. My best . . . . before too long. Over.
Cooper: Good to hear from you down there. How're things going?
Sea Lab 2: Roger, Gordo, things are going very well. We just got . . . Sea Lab about 6 hours ago -- 8 hours ago. It took a while to get up and get going. We have a lot of sea life to study. Sea Lab is in good condition and we're looking forward to pleasant days . . . . down here.
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Old August 29th, 2020 #2
Ray Allan
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Gordon Cooper and Scott Carpenter were from the original 7 group of Mercury astronauts. Pete Conrad made four space flights--Gemini V, Gemini XI, Apollo 12 (third man to walk on the Moon) and Skylab I, and was one of my favorite astros. Very few of these original pioneers are still with us today. They saw manned spaceflight stagnate in low Earth orbit for 30 years, and none of them will probably live to see it move beyond that.
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Old August 29th, 2020 #3
Nikola Bijeliti
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray Allan View Post
Gordon Cooper and Scott Carpenter were from the original 7 group of Mercury astronauts. Pete Conrad made four space flights--Gemini V, Gemini XI, Apollo 12 (third man to walk on the Moon) . . .
And what important flights they were! Gemini V practiced the radio communication they would need to dock with a space station or another spacecraft. In Gemini XI, they docked with the Agena rocket, which then fired its engines to boost the spacecraft to an orbit with an apogee of 850 miles, an altitude record that still stands today.


On Apollo 12, they accomplished a lunar surface rendezvous. Both orbital rendezvous and surface rendezvous will be needed on any future missions to the moon and Mars.


Look how close the Apollo 12 LM is to the Surveyor 3 spacecraft. That was a precision landing!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray Allan View Post
. . . and Skylab I, and was one of my favorite astros. Very few of these original pioneers are still with us today.
And, as commander of Skylab I (officially Skylab 2, but they put the wrong number on the mission patch), he commanded the first mission to return safely from a space station from any country and set another endurance record to boot.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray Allan View Post
They saw manned spaceflight stagnate in low Earth orbit for 30 years, and none of them will probably live to see it move beyond that.
If the news can be trusted, NASA will be putting the next man and the first woman on the moon in 2024 with the help of SpaceX, and, later that same year, SpaceX, going it alone, will be sending the first humans to Mars. So, if they can just hang on for a few more years, they should be able to see something exciting happen.

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Old August 30th, 2020 #4
Ray Allan
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Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr., Commander of Apollo 12 (left), poses with fellow crew members Richard Gordon (Conrad's fellow Gemini XI crewman), Command Module Pilot, and Alan Bean, who as Lunar Module Pilot walked on the lunar surface with Conrad in November 1969.



NASA did put the wrong number on the Skylab 2 mission patch. Skylab 1 was actually the unmanned Orbital Workshop launched separately. Next is the Skylab 2 crew (l-r), Joe Kerwin, Conrad, and Paul Weitz. Next photo is the launch of Sklyab 2 by a Saturn 1B rocket from Kennedy Space Center, May 25, 1973.

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Last edited by Ray Allan; August 30th, 2020 at 03:38 AM.
 
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