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OUR ANCESTORS CAME FROM OUTER SPACE
Gemini ii took ofiF on September 12, 1966, with Richard Gordon
and Charles Conrad aboard, 1 hour 37 minutes after the
HiFt-oflF of an Agena rocket. It took them only 94 minutes to catch
it and dock, an important achievement in fuel economy. The
next day Gordon took a walk in space detaching a cable from the
Agena and fastening it to Gemini. This operation was scheduled
to last for 107 minutes, but Gordon (like Cernan before) had
trouble with his respiration, tired fast, and ran out of breath in
38 minutes. He had to return to the Gemini capsule, whereupon
both astronauts started up the big Agena motor and lifted themselves
to a new altitude record of 850 miles above earth. In this
new orbit Gordon made another space walk without difficulties.
Gemini 12, the last of the series, had its lift-off on November
11, 1966, with James Lovell and Edwin Aldrin aboard. It made
the link-up with its Agena on the third orbit. Three space walks
were planned, but Mission Control discovered some instability in
the linked-up pair and refused permission to use the big Agena
motor. Instead the astronauts had to cHmb to a higher orbit
using only the small auxiliary motors. That was accomplished
and Aldrin had his three walks without incident.
As we see now, not one of the ten Gemini flights was free of
hindrances or obstacles, but all missions were accomplished approximately
on time and without any loss of life. That was possible
mainly because of the composure and the extraordinary technical
competence of the astronauts.
The European astronautical engineers should learn a lesson
from these experiences of the American space program. They are
not, as they think, the only ones with troubles. Three of the most
capable American astronauts died when the real drama started,
in the fire on the ground in the Apollo 1 capsule during the very
last test before the flight.
But the astronauts were not limited to equipment troubles.
They saw tilings during their missions that could not be
discussed with anybody outside NASA. It is very difficult to obtain
any specific information from NASA, which still exercises a
very strict control over any disclosure of these events.
It seems that all Apollo and Gemini flights were followed, both
at a distance and sometimes also quite closely, by space vehicles
of extraterrestrial origin—flying saucers, or UFOs (unidentified