The week in space. CBS News selective coverage of the mission of Gemini 9. Now
the docking in space of Gemini 9 and its target vehicle. Reporting from the CBS
News Space Center at the McDonnell Aircraft Plant in St. Louis, correspondent
Walter Cronkite. Everything is going very well with Gemini 9. Stafford and Cernan
have chased that target vehicle 70,000 miles three times around the earth at
their orbital speed of 17,500 miles an hour. They have adjusted their orbit
upward from the orbit into which they were launched a hundred miles by 168
miles at its peak to the 185 mile circular orbit of the unmanned target
vehicle and they are now within a mile of the target vehicle as they hurtle
over the Pacific Ocean on their third revolution. They are out of touch
however with ground stations. The last station was at Carnivon Australia on the
western coast of Australia and at that point they reported they were within a
mile of the target vehicle. They are supposed to stay out at about that
distance keeping station a close eye on the target perhaps moving into within a
hundred feet or so of the target vehicle as they approach Hawaii where they will
next be picked up in communication with the ground in about another 10 to 15
minutes. At that time we expect to know definitely whether or not the target
vehicle did drop as it was supposed to upon launch Wednesday the shroud which
covers the target adapter, the cone, the point at which the two
spacecraft will actually join together. If that shroud has been dropped then
this mission goes ahead as planned. If it has not been dropped then other plans
will be made for the mission. At any rate so far it's going well. They have had
trouble with their onboard computer but at Houston the manned space center they
say that this should not hinder the rest of the operation and they can go ahead
as they are. Hawaii is supposed to acquire the spacecraft at approximately
well two more minutes from now but they're giving it a little more time and
saying it might be as much as 10 minutes before they're able to get
information from the spacecraft and that information the first they'll want to
know is whether or not the shroud is on the target vehicle. We have some feeling
here at the McDonald plant at St. Louis where our space center has moved from
Cape Kennedy. We flew up from Cape Kennedy right after the launch and are
here now with Dave Schumacher and Bob Sharp of McDonald who have been holding
down the fort here at St. Louis so splendidly and back there in the
spacecraft behind me. Perhaps they can tell us what the indications are Dave
and Bob that we have that that shroud may have been dropped. Well Walter I plan
to collect several cups of coffee over Bob's assurances here that that shroud
was going to be off and the best indication now seems to be two blinking
lights those lights that Cernan said exultantly I've got them. Bob what does
that mean those lights? Well those lights are normally under the shroud they are
on a spring mechanism that retracts back in behind the docking cone so the
shroud has to leave and then the docking cone has to extend before these lights
can be released and they fly out so if they've seen the lights that means
they're out and the docking cone is or the shroud is should not be there. Well so
far we have had no confirmation of that either from the astronauts or from
mission control down at Houston. I suppose we could just say that until the
astronauts formally see the spacecraft target vehicle and call it in we just
will have to say it looks good but no one knows for sure. That's the only way
we'll know for certain I'll win that coffee. All right gentlemen as you apply
along in our simulator here at St. Louis and as we saw just a moment ago the view
that the astronauts will be getting from the spacecraft of the target vehicle if
that shroud is off we are waiting for a word from the spacecraft itself
somewhere over the Pacific as soon as it gets in touch with Hawaii as to whether
that shroud is on or off. CBS News color coverage the Gemini 9 a mission will
continue in a moment.
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Back here our CBS News Space Center now established at McDonald plant in St.
Louis where we from which we expect to cover the rendezvous possibly the docking
of the Gemini 9 with its unmanned target vehicle and late tomorrow morning the
walk of Eugene Cernan in space two and a half hour walk he is expected to make.
We're still waiting from word from Hawaii that they have acquired the
spacecraft as it comes over Hawaii across the Pacific and hope to get word
then that the shroud has been dropped. Let's go to Al Chop the voice of Mr.
Cernan. Okay three or four degrees per second.
Flight Hawaii. Stand by Hawaii.
Hawaii Capcom Houston flight. Go fly. Roger will you ask the crew if they
think if they think cycling the target docking adapter 58% fuel remaining.
We're keeping out here between 10 and 30 feet per cent. Roger copy. Roger Gary try back again.
Ask the crew if they think cycling the target docking adapter from unrigidized
rigidized might help break it loose. Roger copy. Say again. Roger the basic
rate is in roll the
Roger the basic rate is in roll the body axis right now is
purely horizontal. The big rates are in roll.
Roger understand. Do you think there's any possibility of breaking the cone or
taking it loose back? Roger why don't you have the crew stand by there and why
don't you try cycling the target docking adapter cone back to the rigidized and
then back to the unrigidized and in between each cycle actually as you cycle
it back to rigidized have the crew watch it and see if it seems to be doing any
good. Roger and advise them when you're sending the clan. Roger.
Jimmy 9Y.
I want you to join in and I can also see the back to spring the back of the small spring
is all 30 pounds of spring. We're up in about 5, 10 feet out of docking position here.
If the back boat is properly fired I can see the spring has got the two shells apart about 2 inches.
There's two halves of 2 inches you can see that there's quads full of them.
And there's some pyros and there's some cables on the pyros.
That front ramp shell is driving into the stand past mine. You can see the black
stretch marks on it. We're now about 3 feet from it. And those electrical
connectors I put disconnected not connect on either one of them.
They did not disconnect is that right?
Do stand. And then the band is holding the whole mass together.
Stand by one let me give you a distance on this other one.
Yeah in fact I'm trying to find the cable disconnect but I can't see the cable disconnect
of course it would be plugged. Okay the other one the spring is going from the back to the other half
one and no piping is still there. It's separated to the back of the back it's completely
separated 3 to 4 inches. I'll give you another good check. The only thing that's holding
the whole mass on there is the band.
Have the pyro disconnect for a word.
Roger understand.
We've got about 3 minutes here to our LOS. We'd like to go through one rigidized and
unrigidized sequence and you watch it if you get into position where you could watch it.
Okay stand by one. I don't want to be too close to the spring and cut loose.
Roger understand.
Okay now on the other side both explosive bolts on the band have fired and the band
is held intact by all four of those electrical pyros that fired the bolts. It doesn't look
like somebody hooked up a disconnect cable.
Roger understand.
Disconnects but not disconnects. That's the only thing that's holding the whole mass intact.
Roger.
Donovan rigidizer can we hack it over the states?
Roger I was going to suggest it. I'm getting too close to LOS.
Yeah I'm too close to the nose cone too.
Roger.
Okay Gary you can advise. Well stand by we'll be going.
Relay that word on the Houston incident.
Okay explosive bolts have fired. It is basically free from the APDA but just barely held on
by those four little pyro wires there.
Roger.
Pyro wires on the strap in this incident.
Roger understand.
And we have 58 percent oxygen remaining.
Roger.
It looks like an angry alligator out here rotating around.
I can imagine.
Hawaii Capcom Houston flight.
Go flight.
Roger ask the crew if they could be set up for the stand by.
Houston recon position can appear quite a while and also we have a suggestion we might put out our docking barn. Go up and tap it.
Roger stand by.
Roger.
Say again flight.
I've got a counter proposal. Ask them tell them we're going to continue working on their description and we'll cycle the adapter and we'll pick them up over the states here.
Okay very good.
Instructor's alive.
All right.
Roger.
We're on the way. Let's look at it.
And try to find the adapter over the state.
Roger.
Back in the same position. I guarantee it's all two of them.
All four of them are exploding bolts have fired.
It is basically free of the APDA but just barely holding on it.
Our APDA adapter there is those four little pyro wires on the strap in this incident.
Okay we're having yellow ass.
Springs are just about extended to four point.
That was voice communication between the Hawaiian tracking station and Gemini 9 and you heard Tom Stafford give a very vivid description of the status of the shroud that is still hanging to our target vehicle.
Our next communication of course will come when we get over the stateside pass in a few minutes and we will attempt to bring further information at that time.
Hopefully a plan whereby we can release the shroud.
This is Gemini control at four hours thirty four minutes into the flight.
That was a communication with Hawaii. They'll have about half hour almost a little bit less than that to discuss this matter with the various tracking stations right on across the states when the communications should be a great deal better and make a decision at that time is it just what they can do about that hanging shroud.
As you heard the explosive bolts blue but the shroud apparently hung up on the small pyrotechnic wires that is the wires that carry the electric charge to the pyrotechnics the explosives that burst loose these bolts which hold the shroud on those wires did not disconnect as they were supposed to.
And Tom Stafford believes they're the only things that are holding the shroud on. He says he's got an angry alligator up there. The glob has turned into an angry alligator with these big jaws of the shroud at a twenty five to thirty degree angle.
What they're going to exactly do about this remains to be seen. You heard Tom Stafford suggestion that they spend their docking bar and go up and try to tap it loose.
That came however immediately after he had said he didn't want to get too close in case pieces flew off of that thing. So there's a certain contradiction in his own recommendation apparently.
But down at master control mission control in Houston they have some other ideas and maybe Nelson Benton who was standing by in Houston can tell us what they are. Nelson.
Walter we can only speculate I suppose right now about what they will do but as you recall yesterday mission officials told us that if they found the shroud in this partially open position that that would be from the astronaut's standpoint and from the standpoint of the spacecraft the most dangerous position that that shroud could be in.
Because they would rather have found it closed from an actual danger to the spacecraft standpoint. The earlier word that we had was that if the shroud is on mostly they'll just take pictures of it.
However I presume there's great deliberation going on in mission control now as to just what can be done to change that angry alligator back to just a nice shroudless glob. Walter.
One thing should be pointed out that while they are hurtling through space is 17,500 miles an hour. If that shroud comes loose it doesn't come flying back like the hood of your automobile would if you were driving along a highway and it came loose and were buffeted by a 60 mile an hour wind.
That shroud would float right along with the rest of them at that 17,500 miles an hour. What did concern the space experts before they got this report and may still concern them is that besides the explosive bolts the shroud is spring loaded and the springs push the besides the explosive bolts blowing away the band which holds it together.
These springs push the two pieces of the shroud out at about a three mile an hour speed. Not enough they believe to do any damage to the spacecraft itself but they wouldn't want a walking astronaut to get mixed up in that.
Well that might mean that they could go ahead and practice their various rendezvous and docking maneuvers with this craft in this configuration with the shroud on and then when they got ready for the spacewalk they just back off away and let Cernan do that and the safety away from the target.
Dave Schumacher has a model back here showing us how those clam shells open and Dave maybe you could give us a little explanation of that right now.
Walter this I guess is an angry alligator it's pretty hard to tell from the description exactly the position that the shroud is in but it's probably something like this.
Bob what seems to be holding it together now how would you describe the situation.
I couldn't understand all the conversation but there's a ring a clamp ring that goes around this portion of the shroud and evidently that hadn't gone all the way was the impression I got so that the clam shells couldn't spring away and normally there's a bow in each one of these clam shells so when they're squeezed together and the ring holds them.
This will keep them together and then when they blow the ring and it's pulled up and release the ring I believe comes off and the natural bow then and these two clam shells tend to push them apart.
Apparently this shroud has come part way off that would explain why they saw the acquisition lights and they've also described that there was some separation in here.
Also they talk about at least two possible remedies one that we heard Tom Stopford mention was just coming up and bumping it what would be the danger of doing that.
I don't know I can't really think of any danger.
David let me put in here because the astronaut for getting some conversation from me.
Alright.
Roger it sounds to us like perhaps the cables haven't pulled the disconnects to the wire bundles in which case we would definitely have to wait until the with the contingency plan B there on waiting until later to look at that.
We will go ahead and exercise that TDA as soon as we get acquisition at the Cape.
Your platform alignment prior to this SEP will be about five minutes from now so you've got that much time to do what you like.
Okay Neil from here it looks like it's very possible that the wire bundles couldn't have separated.
It's real hard to see but again there's everybody squared away and what's holding the thing together.
Well I think everybody down here is pretty well convinced by your description of the situation.
Okay I can't really tell you because there's two big up because it goes to the APDA I can't tell whether those are still attached or not but it's the four little wires that go into each of the explosive bolts on the strap that's supposed to have a disconnect on it and those are all intact and all four explosive bolts are fired so it's just the little disconnect up
on the strap that is not pulled. All six of them are still intact and all four should have pulled.
Roger we're with you Tom.
This is remote California local.
Cal local.
We'll probably get some more of that conversation shortly that's the Guayma station.
Lower California that was relaying that communication through Mission Control in Houston and it's being played back from Mission Control to us on a 15 second delay basis that is you actually hear 15 seconds after they hear it in Houston.
And that's the strap that you were talking about there a moment ago.
One other thing occurs to me here I wonder if maybe you and Dave address yourself to what that clamshell partially opened in that fashion that shroud. Is there any possibility that it could buff it the docking adapter itself and cause any difficulty.
I mean it could cause any damage to the docking ring.
Well I wouldn't I wouldn't really think so if it's parted there probably most of the spring force has gone out of that that you get from blowing the blowing the shroud together there.
I don't see how it could damage the adapter that's that's pretty tough stuff that's made to take a whole spacecraft impacting some oddball angles that are around one and a half feet per second.
And they addressed what they might exercise they call it the ATDA. What does that mean that they'll rigidize and unrigidize the docking cone or what.
Yes when it gets over the Cape and they'll have the capability of sending a command to rigidize the docking cone that means the docking cone right here will retract back into the ATDA and then they'll unrigidize it again and cycle it out and this could if it's hanging up on the cone or rubbing it a little bit give it enough of a jar to take it loose.
So Walter it looks like they've got some really real time decisions to make up there right now.
Yes and we see now the the wisdom of these rather complicated flight plans of theirs which in this case take them.
First of all over Hawaii before the docking and then across the United States. This gives them the opportunity which they now have for for some clear communications discussion between the astronauts and the ground station and the experts there at mission control.
Here's more of the conversation from the astronauts.
Okay and then how long will it take you to get in position for a pipeline line soon as this is over.
Not too long.
Okay we're going to be running out of alignment time here.
Your pitch will probably be in about five minutes or so so we'll have probably a little shorter alignment time will be okay.
There's one thing about this this information from the astronauts is that the apparently the spacecraft the target is not tumbling it's rolling.
Well we're pretty convinced due to the elementary signals from the from the cables that they're still plugged in.
Okay.
Right. Are you ready to watch for where we're going to send the commands now.
Okay stand by.
Let us know as soon as you're ready.
Okay.
This is the command to exercise the target vehicle maneuver that Bob Sharp is playing.
Roger.
Okay rigidizing now.
You rigidized the clam shell the alligator drawn came close slightly.
Roger.
Okay.
Okay that's pretty good signal then we'll go ahead plan on going ahead with a separation burn at this point.
So going if they're going ahead with the separation burn at this time as they call it meaning that they're going to separate the two spacecraft.
You've got about 14 minutes left till separation burn so guide your platform align and positioning accordingly.
Roger.
This means they have gone to the alternate plan and apparently do not intend to attempt docking.
They apparently have accepted this they would probably call in the space program an anomaly.
This problem with the target and its nose cone and we'll go to a secondary plan which will provide for the three rendezvous rendezvous that they were planning for this mission but without the docking.
Perhaps hoping that something will happen to this shroud in the course of the next couple of days that they can still get their docking practice in.
Chris Kraft at Houston has said that he does not consider docking a priority item in this mission at any rate since the Armstrong Scott successful docking went so well in Gemini 8 before they had trouble with their thrusters and had to come down early.
They have decided that they can practice on ground trainers the docking procedure almost as well as they can do it up there in space.
We have seen a little space drama this morning as they this afternoon as they checked on that shroud situation and now they're apparently going to the plan simply to come to do the rendezvous without the docking.
That's the status of the Gemini 9 mission at this moment.
We're at our CBS News Space Center here at the McDonald Aircraft plant in St. Louis on the third revolution with the spacecraft now coming across the United States and about to pass over the Cape on out toward the Atlantic on its fourth revolution.
We now have established that the shroud of the target did not jettison as it was supposed to have when the unmanned target vehicle was rocketed into orbit on Wednesday morning.
It is hanging by the wires which connected the explosive bolts to the battery supply in the target itself. Those wires are still connected and are holding the shroud open like a pair of alligator jaws at some 25 to 30 degree angle.
They make it impossible to dock with the target adapter.
The spacecraft Tom Stafford still has suggested he'd like to go up and give the shroud a little nudge with the spacecraft to see if he can break it loose but Houston has not given him permission to do that.
Houston did try rigidizing and unrigidizing pulling in the docking collar and pushing it out again on the target adapter and it did move the shroud but did not break it loose.
And the last word we heard from Mission Control in Houston to the astronauts indicated that they are dropping for the time being the plans to dock.
They're planning now the separation maneuver which will get them in position for the second rendezvous attempt and rendezvous without the use of radar but only with the use of onboard computers and second.
The trouble now is that the onboard computer has been malfunctioning this morning as well and how they'll go through with this second rendezvous we haven't been told as yet.
Let's listen to the astronauts.
I gather there was a communication we'll listen because they're coming in and out occasionally as Houston talks to them.
You can see by our map there in the upper corner the position of the spacecraft as it nears the beginning of its fourth.
It's now 51 minutes into the mission. You heard the description from Tom Stafford of the status of the target vehicle.
At this time spacecraft and target are passing over the Antequua tracking station area, the northern part of South America.
They are beginning the fourth revolution for the spacecraft.
Tom Stafford has aligned his platform moving into position for the equal period rerondevoo which will the burn for which will start at 5.01 elapsed time, 5 hours 01 elapsed time.
The burn will be a delta V of 20 feet per second, delta time of 35 seconds. He will pitch down 90 degrees with the blunt end up and fire his forward thrusters.
This will place him approximately two and one half miles above the target and they will reach a maximum separation from the target of approximately 11 miles. They will be behind the target approximately 11 miles and will come up again and rerondevoo with the target.
During this, after the burn is completed, there will be necessary a slight mid-course correction which will be figured out by the crew aboard Gemini 9. This is Gemini control at 4 hours 53 minutes into the mission.
This is what is called a radio translation maneuver. It's 20 foot per second or some 13 mile an hour upward burn of the rockets giving the spacecraft a new orbit of 179 miles to 191 miles, some few miles above the orbit of the target vehicle.
This equi-period orbit to which they're speaking means that although the perigee and the apogee of the two spacecraft do not coincide, they do come back to the same point in space as they come around.
Maybe we can get a demonstration of that a little later on from perhaps IBM, one of our graphic people, as to how this apogee and perigee situation works with an equi-period orbit.
But that is the basic principle of it. The apogee and the perigee, the high point and the low point of the circle of the Earth, are not the same, but they're in the same plane and they do come around to the same point again after a complete revolution of the Earth.
That is the intention of this maneuver. When they come around on the next time after this separation and come back in range, then at that point the spacecraft is going to attempt to make rendezvous by simply the use of the onboard computer if it is working at that point or information sent from the ground as to the location of the two spacecraft and a sextant.
Jack Siegel is at the IBM console in New York and can demonstrate that equi-period rendezvous for us. Jack?
Walter, maybe this computer demonstration, computer graphics will give an idea of what we're talking about.
Here we've greatly distorted the orbit around the Earth to get our point across easier, the Gemini and the target vehicle.
Now let's show what the Gemini is doing first. When they talk of a radial burn, they're pitching down 90 degrees to point directly at the center of the Earth.
If you ran a radius from the center of the Earth out, the Gemini is pointing right down. Then they are thrusting away from the Earth.
So really, Walter, they're not adding thrust either forward or aft in their flight. What they're doing is adding thrust to change the shape of their orbit.
Now this is greatly exaggerated. I believe the actual figure, Walter, is 13 miles the furthest distance that they will be apart during the revolution around the Earth.
But in this you'll see they've changed. However, they will still go around the Earth in the same rough amount of time.
Now the question that is asked normally is, well, why are they doing this?
This is being done so that in the, because they would come back to the same point as originally, that, let's stop this for a moment,
when they get to about 80 degrees further of travel to go, 80 degrees radial travel, they'll then use their sextant and just use the onboard computer possibly for computation to try to rendezvous earlier.
That's what they'll be doing in this particular case with the equiperiod rendezvous. Have I covered that for you?
I think you did it very well, Jack. Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Those graphics of yours certainly make this orbital physics, which is not an easy subject, a great deal more understandable to us laymen.
That rendezvous will take place then in about an hour and a half from the separation burn, that radio translation as they call it.
Translation is the word they use for motion out of plane, out of plane or in plane, but motion in a specific direction out of that in which they're moving.
That burn of the rockets is supposed to come now in about three minutes and then the rendezvous would come in an hour and a half after that.
Now, under this new plan that they have designed in Houston for this contingency which now has developed, that the shroud is still hanging on the target and that rendezvous, the docking therefore, is impossible.
And we see a simulation here of the situation which pertains out there now with this real alligator, as Tom Stafford calls it up there.
They will do their three rendezvous maneuvers. They have done the one, the original rendezvous on the third orbit.
It was a perfect rendezvous. Their launch was exactly on time as it had to be to make it a perfect rendezvous.
They conducted all of their changes in orbit exactly as planned and they met the target vehicle exactly as planned, only to be disappointed to find that that shroud is still there.
Now, they'll do this other rendezvous which will come in about an hour and a half and then they'll do a third rendezvous early, very early tomorrow morning just before Eugene Cernan's two and a half hour spacewalk.
And now let's listen to Al Chop, the voice of Mission Control.
At four hours and 58 minutes into the mission, Gemini 9 is beginning its fourth revolution, our target on its 34th revolution. Both vehicles are passing over the northern part of South America at this time.
We have a report that the pressure and temperature readings obtained from the AMU astronaut maneuvering unit during the boost phase and while it is in orbit indicate that conditions of the hydrogen peroxide fuel very closely approximate those that pertained on the pad prior to launch.
The current readings are pressure 90 pounds PSI and temperature 77 degrees. Captain John Donahue, Air Force Project Officer for the AMU experiment, remarked that the unit appears to be in excellent condition.
This is Gemini Control at four hours 59 minutes into the flight.
That's new selective coverage of the mission of Gemini 9. Now the start of astronaut Gene Cernan's two and a half hour walk in space. Reporting from the CBS News Space Center at the McDonnell Aircraft Plant in St. Louis, correspondent Walter Cronkite.
Good morning and everything is going well for Eugene Cernan's walk in space. The longest man has yet attempted only the third time. A man has stepped out of a spacecraft into the void of space and floated independent of the machine that took him there.
Eugene Cernan is scheduled to step out of that to Gemini 9 spacecraft out over Hawaii in about five minutes from now. It has been a very restful night for the two astronauts.
You remember it was the fact that they were fatigued after their very difficult rendezvous operation yesterday that postponed this walk for 24 hours.
Well, they napped yesterday afternoon deep slumber for two hours. Then they had 10 hours of a sleep period last night during which they slept soundly for about four hours each and dozed another six hours.
But they awoke very chipper this morning, a chipper hello down there when they awakened and ever since then their voices have shown some of the excitement perhaps restrained but excited of this forthcoming space walk.
This 32 year old Navy Lieutenant Commander is all ready to go. The cabin has been depressurized as far as we know here now.
That process began almost 25 minutes ago and it means that now the prime astronaut, the commander of the spacecraft, Tom Stafford and Eugene Cernan are depending on the pressure of their space suits to sustain them in space.
The hatch will be opened in another three and a half minutes and Cernan will emerge from that hatch.
He will not step out of the spacecraft for another several minutes after that. He will stand in the seat of the spacecraft and take in a micrometeorite collection box that is on the spacecraft mounted right behind him.
That box collecting and finding out about the various matter that is floating around in space.
He will then adjust a camera and eventually step out of the spacecraft.
CBS News color coverage, Gemini 9 mission will continue in a moment.
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Let's listen to a recording from the Pacific being played back from Houston.
This is a very difficult translation to understand. They are reporting operations to open the hatch.
My heel caught on something. I'm right on my eye now.
Man, I'm good.
Hallelujah.
Why is that beautiful on the top? I grab my hat so bad I take a picture of that. I can't turn around fast enough.
Okay.
Let me just see how these hatch forces are.
Now, I'm trying to grab a hold of it. It'll be alright I guess.
Now, I'm actually trying to start. Ah, the handrail in the back is out.
So bad, but I may be able to get this one.
Oh, I got that one. See it out.
I can't see it. It's too dark out.
Okay, my life is down out there.
The times you see being super there on your screen are times to the opening of the hatch.
I'll check the gain level.
Okay, I'll check again, but I'll just put them there and count.
Stand by, wait a minute, let me check these.
Yeah, back.
Checked out.
It's a little bit dark here, let me see.
I got hold of it about 3.9 right now.
Okay, I'm in medium following, very comfortable.
S-12 is the recovery of the micrometeorite box.
That's the little box right behind Cernan's head as he stands in the hatch as he's doing now.
He's standing in the hatch, he's turning around.
This is our simulation here in McDonald, what's going on right now?
This is a small box, which is to measure the impact of the micrometeorites.
The little specks are hardly larger than pebbles of sand, smaller than pebbles of sand.
Scientists are interested in just how hard they do impact a body, and this box has been...
Okay, the S-12 land, you're going?
Right.
Here comes S-12, Tom.
Okay.
I've still got it.
I'm not S-12.
Okay, I'm leaving, go.
What you're hearing is a conversation between Cernan and Stafford.
He's handing down this micrometeorite box.
They're coming to cloud.
Yeah.
We have a handrail?
Handrail is deployed.
Okay, come on now, you can.
Deployment of a handrail, a handrail which comes out, extends from the spacecraft that he can hold onto as he maneuvers around the spacecraft.
Okay.
This is from Mission Control Houston of Cernan's heartbeat, the determining factor as to how much of this workload he can carry in space.
Come on, we're going back to that handrail.
Yep.
It's a long way to that handrail.
Now he's attaching the camera, which will face forward as you see there.
That head you see on the screen there is that of flight surgeon Chuck Berry, Charles Berry.
Yep, you better hold him, I know.
Please.
Okay.
The man you see on that space suit is Miles McClure.
I want you to look there to get empty space for the handrail from far back.
Pull me back down.
I'll pull you down.
Okay, pull me out.
Okay.
That broken transmission sounds as if Cernan has stepped out of the spacecraft.
Okay, put me back.
Telling the staffer to hold me down, which I assume would be holding the umbilical down and keeping it in place.
Okay, let me, come on, you devil.
Okay, hold the camera and now let me check the settings again, Tom.
Six frames per second, 200, and F-16, huh?
Strange world out here, you know?
Yeah.
Listening to the conversation between Cernan floating in space now outside of his capsule that's nearly as weak and guppet by indication and with our simulation here, of course,
talking back to Stafford and that radio command link.
Actually, it's a link along that tether line you see there, 25 feet of umbilical cord.
That contains the life support system and communications link from the spacecraft life support system out through that chest pack.
Down, down, pull me down.
Pull me down.
Pull, pull.
Okay, pull.
I can't hear that.
Okay, hold on a minute.
Well, we haven't been able to clearly determine it from the rather garbled conversation we're hearing.
We're listening in on between Cernan and Stafford.
At this point, he should be attaching that tether out there so he won't float too far free and he won't...
Yeah, that's it, but it's...
Okay, Tom, I'll be clear and I'll be flying.
Pull that leg down.
Okay.
I'm on I-4, DM-12, and I'm going ahead on 3.9.
This is company control, Houston.
He's wearing that...
Gene Cernan going about his duties in a very businesslike way.
It sounded to us here on the ground, the communication, a little choppy to start with.
We were very improved as we moved through the center of the Hawaii Circle,
and we lost acquisition about a minute ago.
We should pick them up again in about two minutes via California.
At 49 hours and 26 minutes, he lapsed time.
Gene did retrieve the S-12 micrometeorite impact emulsion dish.
He also deployed the handrails about two minutes later.
And he noted it was quite a distance back to the handrail.
He seemed to have a little trouble setting up his EVA 16-millimeter camera.
And now we have reacquired via California.
Let's go back to the spacecraft.
We should have steady transmission and good transmission.
Houston, standing by.
We should have pretty good transmission now for the next 20 minutes
until they lose the signal again over Antigua,
the pass over Southern California and down around the Texas border in Mexico,
and then into the Gulf, but in communication with the Texas stations,
then into the Kennedy Station, Bermuda, and Antigua
before we finally lose the signal again on the spacewalk.
Hey, Gene, if you're even standing, I know you are, boy.
We've got a beauty coming.
Houston, we're going to have a little test of the clock right here.
We're reading aloud and fairly clear now.
Roger.
You're clipping a little bit, Tom, but we're getting most of it.
Very good.
The man at this point should be attaching that mirror.
That mirror so that Stafford can see some of the back of the spacecraft.
We're hearing Mission Control in Houston speak directly.
Okay, Gene feels real good in the ELSF.
The temperatures are good.
The food pressures are holding real good.
Houston, roger.
Mission Control, talking to command pilot Tom Stafford
who says that Cerny's chest pack is working well.
Roger.
One minute, Tom.
Okay, you want to pass him, don't go out of there.
What our next step is?
It's a 25-foot umbilical cord on which he is maneuvering.
He is not.
He's not actually maneuvering now.
He's going to maneuver later on in the spacewalk.
I suppose you heard Cerny say.
You can see Edwards Air Force Base below him.
You can see the islands off the coast of California.
His first comment.
The first comment he stepped out there was, this is wild.
Okay.
Houston, roger.
That chest pack he's wearing weighs some 42 pounds.
It can circulate.
Okay.
He's not maneuvering now.
Just floating through.
Texas, remote.
California, local.
Okay, get down a little bit.
Okay, keep it going now.
This is Dr. Berry closely watching his heart rates.
Keep it going now.
Okay.
What Cerny is doing out there is testing the dynamics of this free-floating space.
Just what happens when he throws one arm out, for instance?
Does he flip over from just the exertion and the reaction?
And the dynamics of the umbilical tether.
What that does, does he pull on the tether like that?
Does the spaceship itself move or does he pull in back toward the spaceship?
How much attitude control of the spacecraft is necessary?
Okay.
Cernan now holds the record for the walk in space.
He has exceeded that of Ed White.
He walked just one year and two days ago for 20 minutes.
At this point, Cernan comes back to the hatch.
He will step down in the hatch, readjust cameras.
And then he will emerge from the hatch about five minutes after that.
He goes into the hatch, is scheduled to go in there in about 14 minutes from now.
Okay.
You can see clearly here the handrail.
Okay.
Here as we can tell through that garble transmission, he's trying these Velcro patches, which you see our suit engineer here at McDonald, Miles McClure, testing there too.
These are patches placed on the spacecraft to conform.
Velcro is this material, a little nylon loops on one piece of material, a little nylon hooks on the other, thousands of them.
They're hooked together. Women are familiar with them, dress fastening, that sort of thing.
In space, in the weightlessness of space, this Velcro material is turned out to be very useful.
It can support the full weight of a man. They stood out as so hoped, and that's what they're testing. He's got Velcro pads on his, the palms of his hands, and Velcro pads on the spacecraft to help him maneuver around the spacecraft and to hold on to it in this weightless state to keep it floating away.
He's also got these Velcro pads on his knees. And he's got these handrails, additionally.
The crew has run a very consistent 3.7 pounds. Stafford's suit pressure is 3.6. Stafford's heart rate has been a very steady 90. Cernan's has oscillated some, running fairly close to 155 during work periods.
The shorter the umbilical, the more control he has. At one point he referred to having snake all over me. This is a nickname the crew has given the umbilical. They're talking again as we pass over the Florida coast.
Cernan's heart rate at 155, just about what Dr. Berry expected. If it goes to 170 and holds at that length of time, Berry will become concerned.
He's looking for high heart rate. He's looking for high heart rate, partly excitement, partly exertion.
He's looking for high heart rate.
While Cernan is working this hard...
While Cernan is working this hard, so is Stafford.
Stafford's suit is pressurized also, and it makes it very difficult for him to move while he controls the spacecraft. It is exertion against this pressurized suit which is one of the reasons the heart rates go up.
Cernan has now on this Cernan mission accomplished more in space than any of the two previous spacewalks.
He has performed a couple of useful functions in the placing of the camera, the recovery of the micrometeorite experiment, the placing of the docking adapter mirror.
He now is testing his Velcro and handrail means for moving around the outside of the spacecraft.
We're still with you, Tom.
This is Jeffy controller Houston.
The crew seems to be following very closely on the flight plans sketched out for you about an hour ago.
Cernan is back in the area of the cockpit in there about ready to change the camera film.
We're on the far eastern edge of the Bermuda acquisition zone which overlaps with Antigua.
And if we get some additional conversation we'll go right back there.
We're due to lose that signal with Antigua at 11.35, Eastern Daylight.
Several times we've heard Cernan refer to the fact that he had no torquing or roll ability on the umbilical.
Of course he does not have a handheld maneuvering gun as did Ed White.
He does note a tendency to float upwards above the spacecraft with the umbilical which corresponds very closely to the experience of White.
Let's go back now to the conversation.
You want to film the camera?
Take a look at me.
Got you.
Right back, it is really up there.
Okay, we're still running.
Got you.
Got it.
Go ahead.
This is a simulation of the next chore which is to return to the spacecraft, stand in the seat, conduct a couple of more quick missions, changing the camera, et cetera, and then he emerges again for even a longer portion of this total two hour and a half walk.
Hello, that's faster.
Two-three-six kilos, mid-four, that's on medium flow.
A little warm in the spots.
Stafford monitoring his instruments, controlling the attitude of the spacecraft. He warns CERN at one point to stay away from the thrusters of the spacecraft which come out at about 1200 degrees Fahrenheit at the nozzle.
Check on that primary tank pressure now.
We'll pump it up.
We have a catapult here, sir.
Houston talking about the primary tank pressure.
It's a pure oxygen tank, I assume, that they're talking about.
The tank which furnishes the life support oxygen to CERN and Stafford while they're in the space suits.
Houston approaching LOS.
LOS has lost its signal and that comes out in TIGWIP, over in TIGWIP. It should be coming just about now.
At that point there will be about six minutes in which there will be no communication with the spacecraft.
They'll be out of the touch of the ground stations. The next ground station will be Ascension Island out in the mid-Atlantic.
What you see here is in our McDonald's simulator with Bob Sharp, our prime astronaut, helping Miles McClure,
the McDonald's suit engineer who has been simulating the part played by CERN and some of his equipment there.
That's Paul Haney relaying the data.
Stafford noted that they have changed the film in the EVA camera. Stafford noted at the end of that conversation that he had jettisoned the thermal curtain
which protects the AMU device in the after end of the adapter.
We've also illuminated the EVA lights there now, or in about 20 minutes we'll be moving into a night area.
The flight plan calls for Stafford to extend the handrails and the footbar in the adapter area which Gene will be braced against when he dons his astronaut maneuvering unit.
Meanwhile, CERN is to move to the adapter area and inspect the area generally and look at any strap hangings that might be part of the separation from their Titan booster.
He didn't note any earlier. We got a very brief report there. He didn't see a lot of straps as we saw in the Gemini 6 spacecraft.
So CERN will in about five minutes from now move out of the spacecraft again and back to the back of the spacecraft to the adapter section where he'll stand through the night side pass
around 20 minutes putting on his astronaut maneuvering unit and then venture forth again.
CBS News color coverage, the Gemini 9 mission will continue in a moment.
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This is the water crime kite back at our CBS News Space Center McDonald Aircraft in St. Louis where we've been simulating the spacewalk that CERN is now taking.
Paul Haney is having an announcement from Houston. This is Gemini Control, Houston.
Well, we just got in on the end of that transmission from Houston.
What Paul Haney had just reported was that all of the readouts on the ground at the mission control in Houston are very favorable on this walk of Eugene Cernan's, including his heart rate.
While it went up to 155 at one point toward the end of the first part of the walk, after some 20 minutes it had dropped down to 125, way below what they had anticipated, and they're very happy with that.
As they say, the surgeons say, he is adapting very well to spacewalking.
Doing very well indeed, and apparently every part of the spacewalk has gone absolutely perfectly so far.
He had a little bit of difficulty perhaps attaching his 16-millimeter camera to the forward side of the hatch, which was his second mission after emerging from the hatch or after opening the hatch.
That hatch opening took place unscheduled over the Pacific by the time they were over Hawaii some 30 minutes ago.
They had the hatch open a little bit ahead of schedule, if anything, and Cernan was standing in the seat.
He turned around and recovered a small box which was a micrometeorite collection box.
It had been activated during the sleep periods from inside the spacecraft for the last two days, and it was to measure the impact of these tiny specks, some almost invisible, of the micrometeorites that are floating in space.
How many of them are there and how dangerous are they to man in space?
At this moment they're back in touch in Ascension Island, and let's listen in.
Tom, can you see whether the tape recorder power circuit breaker is on or off on the right console?
That's probably the same circuit breaker that they had trouble with earlier in the morning before the spacewalk began causing an uncontrolled roll, and they're just making sure from Houston that that circuit breaker is still off.
They don't want to have it back there while Cernan's out there.
We're going to have to go over here and close the hatch.
There we go.
You heard a moment ago, they have jettisoned the cover around the astronaut maneuvering unit.
That's a 166-pound backpack that Cernan would have gone in the back of the spaceship.
That was a malfunction here at our McDonald's simulation, not something that happened in space.
Our hatch flew open.
I repeat again, that did not happen in the space flight.
It happened only here at this remarkable simulation which McDonald's aircraft has built here at St. Louis.
McDonald's people have built the Gemini spaceships and built the Mercury ship before that.
At this point in the space flight itself, Cernan should be leaving the hatch again.
The dark side period is just coming.
They're going through their space night, which lasts about 20 minutes in the orbit that they are now in.
They're entering that over Africa and Cernan emerges from the spacecraft, goes to the back of it, back into the adapter.
The adapter section of the spacecraft is that section which controls the life support systems and so forth while they're in orbit.
And it is jettisoned before retrofire when they return.
Right now it's a solid ring about three feet deep and some 10 feet in diameter.
Back in that area, he's got a place where he stands on a foot rail, holds onto a hand rail,
and then dons this big pack on his back, this 166-pound automatic or astronaut maneuvering unit,
which will make him, in a sense, a one-man spaceship with full control capabilities.
The first time this unit has ever been used, far more sophisticated than that used by Ed White on his walk.
And actually the question in space is whether as elaborate a piece of equipment as this will be needed.
It was a simple handheld unit such as that Ed White used, be adequate.
They won't know that until they've tested this and other units on this and an extra three scheduled Gemini spacewalks.
The next one of those to come up in July on July 18th is the present schedule.
Cernan should be at this moment, although we are not getting very clear transmissions.
Scarcely.
These are scarcely readable transmissions as you certainly know.
These are still the transmissions between Cernan and Stapper that the ground is monitoring.
In this case, they're monitoring at Ascension Island.
And that information, transmission being relayed back to Cape Kennedy and to Houston and eventually to us.
And it is not very readable.
So far this flight has proved out just exactly what Ed White had suggested earlier from his short walk.
And so far this flight has been very much like Ed White's walk with a few exceptions.
Cernan has done more out there than White did in the first American spacewalk.
He did recover that box with micro-media right experiment.
He set up the camera, he set up that mirror that you saw that put from Stapper to watch him as he goes to the back of the spacecraft.
And he tested, as did Ed White, the dynamics of the umbilical cord, what happened when he pulled on it, what happened to the spacecraft and so forth.
And now he's getting ready and is going back to the back of the spacecraft to get into that unit during the next 20 minutes
and prepare for the further walk in space with his fully controlled maneuvering unit.
A one-man spaceship. CBS News color coverage of the Gemini 9 mission will continue in a moment.
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In Houston, Paul Haney is briefing us on what they were able to pick up out of the Ascension Pack.
Ensuring that the bars are in place, the foot rails and the hand rails.
Haney will check his reaction control system handles very carefully on the AMU before moving on with the flight plan.
We presently read 50 hours and 10 minutes. The crew has consistently stayed right with the flight plan as written.
We expect sunset to occur in the Pretoria area at 50 hours and 15, 16 minutes into the flight,
at which point CERN is to enter the adapter area.
Our next acquisition is slated for 50 hours and 13 minutes through Pretoria, South Africa,
and followed by an acquisition at Tanana Reve at 50 hours and 18 minutes.
It is unlikely that we would have any voice communication coming back to Pretoria.
I think it will be a ground monitor-only situation.
This is Gemini Control, Houston.
What Paul Haney was...
I don't know what that transmission is unless it's a tape playback.
They're not supposed to be in touch with anybody right now.
We're near the end of the Ascension Island Pass.
As you know, these tracking stations are placed strategically around the globe to keep a constant touch with the spacecraft as is possible,
but this is not possible given the present state of the radios that can be carried on these spacecraft with weight and space limitations.
And with the large ocean spaces and large jungle wastes, well, there just aren't enough tracking stations and ships at sea to keep in touch with them at all times,
so there are some points where signal to them is lost.
One of these points is coming right now, and they will be out of touch with the Ascension Island Station out in the middle of the Atlantic.
From there, for about two minutes, to the Pretoria South African Station picks them up and carries them along for another eight minutes.
Then they're out of touch.
Now, take that back, Pretoria and Tanana Reef Station out in the Malagasy Republic, they overlap, and there will be constant communication,
constant communication with them from about 1153 Eastern Daylight Time to 1206.
What you're hearing now is Houston contacting Pretoria and Tanana Reef, checking out communication before the pass.
... temperatures and pressures exist in these two suits.
Stafford's suit pressure at last reading, which was Cape downrange reading, shows 3.67 pounds per square inch.
In the right suit, the EV Assernin suit, the temperature is running 54.7 degrees, the pressure 3.73 degrees.
Meanwhile, the AMU hydrogen peroxide, the gas fuel, which has not yet been activated, the system still is inactive until Tom Stafford turns a switch in the cockpit.
That reading shows a very steady 85, which it has run since the beginning of the flight.
The peroxide temperature is 71 degrees.
This is Gemini Control of Houston.
This is the first attempt to assess the value of this hydrogen peroxide in a small unit such as this astronaut maneuvering unit,
and there is a constant monitoring of the pressure and temperature of that hydrogen peroxide.
The substance, very much like ladies used to bonding their hair, used to at any rate, it now is being used as a jet fuel.
It turns to steam and can be used as thrusters for the spacecraft, for the astronaut maneuvering unit.
And now let's go down to Nelson Benton at Mission Control Center.
He can give us a report on the Cernan and Stafford families on this eventful Sunday morning. Nelson?
Walter, there's a great deal of concentration going on in Mission Control about the EVA, the extravehicular activity,
and of course at the homes near Mission Control, the homes of Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan.
There's a great deal of concentration going on at the Stafford home, Neil Armstrong's wife.
Neil is the...
...small child of astronaut Roger Chaffee about there.
However, not everybody's concentrating on the flight.
The last report we had from the Cernan home is that little three-year-old Tracy is not watching, is not listening.
She's in the backyard swinging.
Cernan, back in the adapter of the spacecraft now, as darkness settles down,
settles over the spacecraft, which is on an orbit around 185 miles,
just about that at which it left its target yesterday.
The orbit has a 181-degree apogee, 185-degree, or perigee rather, 185-degree apogee.
The target, which still has that shroud on it, which prevented the docking part of this operation,
about 145 miles back of the spacecraft now as they're over Africa, approaching the coast of Africa.
And Cernan, in the dark, is checking out with lights that are provided back in the adapter section,
that adapter and the astronaut maneuvering unit, that 166-pound pack he'll be putting on his back.
It just sits in that pack and has full maneuvering capability with it.
That is, pitch, roll, yaw, forward, back, out of plane, translations.
That is, out of the present orbit, if he so desires.
He's not going to do anything like that today, of course.
This unit would provide, presumably, if it proves out as well as they expect it to today,
the capability for an astronaut to perform independently in space.
The astronauts themselves would love to try that, and they just might get a chance on later Gemini missions.
Until they've proved out to this system on a lot more flights, they're not going to let the astronaut loose.
Cernan will be at the end of a 125-foot long nylon line,
which does not have any capability to carry oxygen or communications to him, but is simply a safety cable, in effect,
to keep him from floating away from the spacecraft.
He backs into this AMU, as you see Miles McClure, our McDonnell suit engineer,
demonstrating for us here in this remarkable simulation that McDonnell and CBS have built here in St. Louis.
He will then, as he emerges from that short while, move up on the back of the spacecraft,
and will then move forward. He'll get out in front of the spacecraft, and with his maneuvering unit,
he will go forward and back sideways, up and down, and finally, after two hours and a half in space,
he will return to the spacecraft, and the hatches will be closed again.
At the moment, the hatch is down to within just a two or three inch opening,
just enough to protect that umbilical cord on which Cernan is still connected.
He will, incidentally, not be using that umbilical, as we suggested,
when he gets out on the end of that nylon rope in another 20 or 30 minutes.
We'll be standing by here at CBS News Space Center, McDonnell aircraft, ready to report as developments warrant,
and we'll be back to report to the final phase of Eugene Cernan's walk in space at approximately 1.30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
Walter Cronkite, CBS News.
The Week in Space, CBS News selective coverage of the mission of Gemini 9.
Next, a report on the conclusion of the walk in space, when CBS News coverage resumes at 1.30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
This is CBS.
Communications between Cernan and Stafford were not adequate. A loud gargle is the way Stafford called them,
for them to safely let Cernan depend on that communications link alone.
Also, Cernan has been having great difficulty with his visor.
It's frozen up, frosted over, and he would not be able to see out there in space.
Let's hear some more of the conversation.
Roger, we're getting Cernan away.
Okay, we have that.
Roger, and we concur on the no-go.
Roger, you have to expand four to five times more energy than what we had in zero, than what we experienced in zero-two on the Earth plane.
Roger, understand that Houston agrees with a no-go.
Roger.
Stafford reporting also that it takes four to five times more energy, four to five times more work for Cernan to get that AMU unit working.
Let's listen again.
Hawaii, Capcom, Houston Flight.
Go, Flight.
Roger, if you get a chance, you could ask him to turn around and see if he can get some sunlight into the adapter area.
He said that he was attempting to get the sunlight on him now.
Okay, fine.
What's the sunlight on him? Are they...
Roger, we understand.
With the sunlight on him, they might be able to...
Flight away.
...up and away.
Okay, he's back on...
...freezing and the fogging of the visor. That probably will happen.
But all of these other malfunctions with the AMU mean that, as you heard, Stafford had recommended and the ground had accepted the recommendation that they abandon that AMU experiment.
Still fogged up.
Roger, we just...
What hasn't been entirely clear to us here on the ground is whether the visor that is fogged is the primary visor, the same sort that all the astronauts wear, or the...
This is Gemini Control, Houston.
Now they're fogging...
...eight minutes into the flight. At last, reports are that he still had approximately 75 percent fogging condition on his visor.
And while the situation is still in some doubt, it does not appear that the AMU will be used during the mission. They're going to have another reevaluation as we move into the California area of acquisition.
We are acquiring now at California, and let's stand by.
Well, apparently there is some reconsideration in Houston.
Some reevaluations in the last five minutes.
At 1244 Eastern Daylight Time, they said no go for the AMU.
Now they're reconsidering.
Hawaii is LOS.
Roger, Hawaii.
They lose contact now with the...
I'm sorry about that AMU.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Okay, Houston, the speed's up pretty high over here, but he's still fogged over.
Roger, we're reading you loud and clear now, Tom.
Okay.
We call it quits for that AMU, but we have no choice.
We're getting these constant concurrences from Houston for a no-go for the astronaut maneuvering unit, but Paul Aeney still says they're considering the matter, and it does not appear they're going to conduct the AMU experiment.
So far, it's 50 percent fog over.
Apparently that fogging is disappearing now.
They're down to 50 percent fog.
Okay, I'm on the right fog and I'm speeding fog right now.
By a callsman orbital map there, you see where they are.
You might have Gene check his emergency bottle pressure when he gets a chance.
Roger, we will report it.
So if he's on high rate, do you know where he is?
Roger, when he can see well enough to read that bottle pressure, we'd like to get an idea what it is.
Roger, we'll do.
Ken, can you read your breakage?
What's the pressure on the chip?
It's about 6,800.
You'll see that you've got the 6,800.
Roger, very good.
Hey, there's an outbreak in the time trails down there.
Did you see that?
I could see right through my nose, but I can't see if it's on my eyeballs.
We're coming up to our way out, got the fault 3 of HIPPO with the
kind of a burst, Tom.
Hey, Tom, what's that guy doing with the Texas license out there on the California Highway?
Which one is the Texas freeway?
Yeah, the motor faculty.
Oh, the Goethe State Freeway.
Yeah.
Okay, Gene, how much can you see out now?
Okay, I got my left eye, I can see through, and I can feel my nose, a hole right there,
and 16 plus signage, still fog.
Okay, he could just see through his nose, one little hole in his left eye,
and I could see in the mirror he's pretty well fogged over to about 60 to 70 percent of his face.
Roger, Tom, and we're copying Gene pretty good, too.
Okay.
The shfogging means that the wrecked Cernan's wearing a shutter right there.
We're going to have to move a little around it.
The faculty passing right over also, Tom.
Presumably what they're going to do is wait for the heat of the daytime pass over the
United States to try to dissipate that fog.
We want to confirm that the AMU decision made by Stafford was no go.
We've canceled the AMU experiment.
Gene is back on the spacecraft, electrical power and oxygen,
and at present time he's taking a little rest as the spacecraft moves across the New Mexico area.
The attempt to connect up with the totally independent astronaut maneuvering unit, the AMU.
It's an amazing visual definition that he could see through a little spot where his nose was,
but he could not see through where his eyes are.
But apparently as to demonstrate that his vision wasn't completely obscured,
he asked why that motorcycle or car down there on a California freeway had a Texas license plate
injecting some levity into the situation, which I suppose is needed at this point.
We're showing 51 hours, 14 minutes into the flight here and we expect the Texas station to acquire momentarily.
Cernan is in effect, as if you were to see in the windshield, in the automobile and the windshield
and the windows were all fogged up with a little bit of crack down about where the radiator cover is.
This is about what he can see out to his right.
I'm sorry about this.
Houston, Tom, we're not concerned a bit.
We'll be able to pull it up safely.
Staff are apologizing for the fact that...
I'm standing here. I might place you at the best.
One arm I almost deployed, the foot I almost deployed.
The foot arm rail and the ability to fly were all not with the bathtub.
I was able to get back there without any problem.
I saw it was still hanging loose and I spun the bathtub loose.
The arm rail came out, the ability to fly came out, so I was blown away.
I had discovered EVA light back there and I had 110 light.
I think one of the problems was that just before sunset up at night,
I got a little over 100 degrees, so it was really hot.
Right after it got cool, my visor started up and I could get plenty of things with the fore visor,
but I just couldn't see enough of what I was trying to get at when an intervisor fell out completely over.
Tom, we got it.
And still we're not, I want to get to about 40 percent fog right now in high flow.
That's Cernan speaking of course.
It's just about clear in here.
The storms are pretty high over here.
There's Stafford's voice again.
It's a rocket, Houston, we're having to stand here now.
The pressure beads still fogging, it's around 4.
It would take a while to get the rocket through the air.
You wouldn't be high enough?
Yeah, we wouldn't be high enough.
Okay, I'll go and we'll get it.
Exit is about Cal, 40 local.
Exit is about Cal.
Temperature goes down about to minus 250 degrees.
Cernan's moving up now on the forward end of the spacecraft to retrieve the rear view mirror which he mounted on the docking bar earlier in his extravehicular activity.
We have no firm estimates yet on just when Gene will return to the spacecraft.
We would expect it to come perhaps 5 to 10 minutes now.
The flight plan showed that he could remain out up to 5 hours and 50 minutes.
He may elect to take full time, it's just not known at this point.
His fogging is now reduced to about 40 percent.
Let's go back for additional conversation.
I'm going to shoot forward, if you can shoot me forward, I'm doing it.
I'm going to shoot forward.
Cernan is back in the forward part or working his way toward the forward part of the spacecraft now, having spent the night side pass back in the adapter section
and finding that this astronaut maneuvering unit was not functioning properly so that he could use it in space.
Another disappointment for the flight of Gemini 9, this million dollar unit.
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