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JUNE 1, 1962 - cutoff date for applications for second group of astronaunts. in july applicants went to Brooks Air Force Base, TExas to AF school of aerospace medicine for tests. second nine: neil armstrong, elliot see (both civilians), Frank Borman, Jim McDivitt, Tom Stafford (AF, from edwards), Ed White (AF), Pete Conrad, Jim Lovell, John Young (navy) classes in computers and orbital mechanics. at 22,300 miles, one orbit takes 24 hours (geosynchronous) June 5, 1963 - release of announcement in search of new astronaunts. mid-july deadline. the third group, the fourteen. nobody knew about weightlessness problems. some cosmonaunts reported nausea and malaise. flying the parabolic arcs in the zero-g plane (another eddie guinea pig thing) IT WOULD ONLY MAKE SENSE THAT EDDIE GOT SICK AT SOME POINT oxygen tank blew up on apollo 13. had to use air from lunar module. alexei leonov stepped outside voskhod ii for 10 min and so became first space walker gemini 7 was a marathon lasting two weeks, to see if weightlessness was bearable. flapper valves keep blood from falling in wrong place in body so that blood circulates in right direction. in weightlessness, these valves are not needed , and they could atrophy. oct 25, 1965. gemini 6's agena blows up six minutes after takeoff, so they docked with gemini 7 instead. wally laughed off the scientists' requests for experiments. he let stafford analyze the rendezvous problem, but his BEAT ARMY sign in the window, play jingle bells on a harmonica, and come home and have a cigarette. "Cornbeef John Young would have gotten skinned alive for such corn, but Wally somehow carried off with elan." schirra and stafford had launch problem: silence after ignition. could have indicated that the engine might tip over and explode, having released AFTER liftoff, or else (safe alternative, and what really happened) stopped just BEFORE liftoff and still bolted to base. next day found that an electrical plug shook loose. also was a plastic dust cover carelessly left in a fuel line that would have blocked the launch anyway. see and basset killed in T-38 accident, 1966. also in march 1966 hired "as many as qualified" astronaunt applications because it looked like the future flight schedule was going to be packed. Dupped the Original Nineteen. A year later, Eleven (the excess eleven) more chosen. gemini 8 had a wild spin problem. 800 degrees per second gemini 9 couldn't dock with agena because of "angry alligator" nose cone that hadn't come off. helicopter training to learn how to land lunar module, left hand has up/down and throttle control, right has amount of fuel in carburator, and feet control direction. jan 27, 1967 - the fire, apollo 1 second flight called apollo 7 because of the six unmanned test flights before. atlas booster of merc program had 50 unmanned tests before glenn rode it, and almost as many for the titan II that started with gemini 3. saturn v had only 2 unmanned tests. russians were rumored to be building a moon rocket with 11-14 million lb thrust (cf saturn v's 7.5 million) -- link with summer of 69 blockhouse slaugher-explosion. tranquility base 1 degree above lunar equator and 24 degrees right of center line. sun behind them as they land at an angle of 10 degrees. moon in waxing crescent at the time. they landed just outside the rim of darkness. There is only one day in the month that is good for landing. calculate phases for hive trip. lunar soil is dark grey launch, translunar injection (TLI), transposition and docking (T&D), lunar orbit insertion (loi), descent orbit insertion and powered descent initiation (doi/pdi), landing, eva (extravehicular activity), liftoff, rendezvous, transearth injection (tei), entry collins said that moon flight would be last flight, had had enough. in one simulation neil had killed them both, and buzz was really upset about it. remember that collins was almost out for the operation on his cervical spine. buzz gloomy because he would be the second out (neil exercised commander's prerogative). russian probe, luna 15, preceded apollo to moon by a few days. originally soviets had pilot eject and capsule crash land. krushchev in nyc sept 19, 1960 until oct 13, during a window for a mars launch. rockets fizzled on the launch pad (cot 10 and 14). this is the time he pounded his show at the un on the 23rd, the window about to close, third rocket failed to ignite. field marshal mitrovan nedelin ordered technicians to leave blockhouse and see what was wrong. suddenly rocket exploded. estimates of dead range from scores to hundreds. soviet scientists worked on rockets in "concentration camps."
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