April 8, 1964: The first Gemini, just a shell of the spacecraft, lifts off from Pad 19.

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Sixty years ago today, April 8, 1964, Project Gemini took flight for the first time.  Well, sort of.  Gemini was just a shell of itself.  Literally.  The purpose of Gemini-Titan 1 centered on the Titan II booster, a test of its ability to place a Gemini in orbit.  Qualification checkout of the spacecraft would await Gemini 2, with no crew aboard, then scheduled for the end of August.  NASA hoped that the first manned Gemini, a 3-orbit test by Gus Grissom and John Young, could occur before the end of 1964.

Gemini 1 looked like a full-fledged spacecraft from the outside.  Inside, it lacked nearly all spacecraft systems.  It carried two instrument pallets where the crew will sit, one housing a radar transponder and the other three telemetry transmitters.  Launch data was the goal, the capsule studded with sensors to measure temperatures and pressures, heat and structural loads, vibration and sound levels, everything the astronauts would experience on their way to orbit.  

Liftoff from Pad 19 came right on the mark at 11 a.m.  After 154 sec., the first stage shut down as planned.  The second stage fired and kicked away from the spent first stage, the Titan employing a “fire-in-the-hole” technique where the upper stage was lit before stage separation (unlike the Saturn, for example).  About 6 min. after launch, Gemini 1 entered orbit, 11 mi. higher than planned, 199 mi. by 99.6 mi., but well within qualification parameters. 

The Gemini was left attached to the second stage, the official mission ending after 3 orbits, 4 hr. 50 min. after launch.  No recovery of the spacecraft was attempted.  NASA continued to track the combo until its orbited decayed and it burned up over the South Atlantic, April 12, on its 64th orbit.

The data showed that vibrations during launch were less than expected, with less “Pogo,” up-and-down oscillations like a pogo stick, than had plagued the Titan II development.  Spacecraft temperatures also were lower than expected.

The Titan was crowned as ready to launch Gemini.  Unfortunately, an array of delays, including ones caused by hurricanes, pushed the next launch into 1965.

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I’ve come full. circle, sort of. My first blog post, January 2015, concerned the flight of Gemini 2.