Gemini Titan Launch Vehicle
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Titan Booster
In its youth, it provided America's strategic deterrent during the darkest days of the Cold War and launched NASA's Gemini spacecraft that paved the way for the Moon landings. During middle age, it hurled planetary probes into the farthest reaches of the Solar System and propelled vital military spacecraft into orbit. And, as it reached full maturity, it delivered the Nation's most important and most expensive intelligence and military communications satellites to stations high above the Earth.
It is the Titan-a name synonymous with space exploration and national defense.
First developed as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Titan family of launch vehicles was born in October 1955 when the U.S. Air Force awarded a contract to the Martin Company (which evolved into Martin Marietta and later Lockheed Martin) to build a second ICBM to supplement the still-untested Atlas missile. The result was the Titan I-the United States' first two-stage ICBM and first missile to be based in a hardened silo buried deep underground.
The Air Force accepted delivery of the first Titan I in June 1958, followed by a test program that culminated in the successful inaugural launch of the missile from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on February 6, 1959. Soon after, in May 1959, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Ballistic Missile Construction Office started construction of the first Titan I underground silos at Lowry AFB (Air Force Base), Colorado-each 160 feet (49 meters) deep and 44 feet (13 meters) in diameter, topped off with a pair of horizontal doors on the surface that weighed 125 tons apiece. The first Titan I squadron at Lowry AFB and its complement of nine Titan I's was placed on operational alert in 1962.
Production of an upgraded version of the Titan I with greater range and lifting capacity was initiated in 1958, with the Martin Company again selected as the prime contractor. The new missile, named Titan II, used fuels that could withstand long-duration storage in the missile's fuel tanks, effectively creating an ICBM that could be launched almost instantaneously by eliminating the laborious pre-launch fueling process. By 1965, all of the original Titan Is deployed at five different bases in the western United States were phased out in favor of the more capable Titan II.
The first Titan II was launched on March 16, 1962 from Cape Canaveral. The missile system promptly achieved all of its test program objectives and was placed on operational status in 1963. NASA, too, was quick to recognize the vehicle's capabilities and ordered a modified version of the Titan II to launch its two-person Gemini spacecraft. Ten crewed Gemini missions were launched during 1965 and 1966 from Cape Canaveral, developing the techniques required for the upcoming Apollo Moon landing program.
Eventually, more than 140 Titan II ICBMs were manufactured, deployed at two missile squadrons located at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona; two at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas; and two at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. Titan missiles armed with nuclear warheads remained on strategic alert for 25 years until the last one was decommissioned in 1987. Fourteen of the retired Titan II ICBMs were refurbished for use as space launch vehicles, boosting a variety of military and civilian spacecraft into polar orbits from Vandenberg AFB, California.
Spacecraft
A cutaway of the Project Gemini spacecraft
NASA selected McDonnell Aircraft, which had been the prime contractor for the Project Mercury capsule, to build the Gemini capsule in 1961 and the first capsule was delivered in 1963. The spacecraft was 19 feet long and 10 feet wide with a launch weight of 8,490 pounds. The Gemini capsule first flew with a crew on March 23, 1965.
Gemini was the first manned spacecraft to include an onboard computer, the Gemini Guidance Computer, to facilitate management and control of mission maneuvers. Unlike the Mercury, it used ejection seats, in-flight radar and an artificial horizon—devices borrowed from the aviation industry.
A major difference between the Gemini and Mercury spacecraft was that Mercury had all systems other than the reentry rockets situated within the capsule, most of which were accessed through the astronaut's hatchway. In contrast, Gemini housed power, propulsion, and life support systems in a detachable Equipment Module located behind the Reentry Module, which made it similar to the Apollo Command/Service Module design. Many components in the capsule itself were reachable through their own small access doors.
The original intention was for Gemini to land on solid ground instead of at sea, using a Rogallo wing paraglider rather than a parachute, with the crew seated upright controlling the forward motion of the craft. To facilitate this, the paraglider did not attach just to the nose of the craft, but to an additional attachment point for balance near the heat shield. This cord was covered by a strip of metal which ran between the twin hatches. However, this design was ultimately dropped, and parachutes were used to make a sea landing as in Project Mercury. However, the capsule was suspended at an angle closer to horizontal, so that a side of the heat shield contacted the water first. This eliminated the need for the landing bag cushion used in the Mercury capsule.
Early short-duration missions had their electrical power supplied by batteries; later endurance missions used the first fuel cells in manned spacecraft.
Unlike Mercury, which could only change its orientation in space, the Gemini spacecraft could translate in all six directions, and alter its orbit. It was designed to dock with the Agena Target Vehicle, which had its own large rocket engine which was used to perform large orbital changes.
Gemini was designed by a Canadian, Jim Chamberlin, formerly the chief aerodynamicist on the Avro Arrow fighter interceptor program with Avro Canada. Chamberlin joined NASA along with 25 senior Avro engineers after cancellation of the Arrow program, and became head of the U.S. Space Task Group’s engineering division in charge of Gemini. The prime contractor was McDonnell Aircraft, which had also been the prime contractor for the Project Mercury capsule.
In addition, astronaut Gus Grissom was heavily involved in the development and design of the Gemini spacecraft. He writes in his posthumous 1968 book Gemini! that the realization of Project Mercury's end and the unlikelihood of his having another flight in that program prompted him to focus all of his efforts on the upcoming Gemini Program.
The Gemini program was managed by the Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas, under direction of the Office of Manned Space Flight, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C, Dr. George E. Mueller, Associate Administrator of NASA for Manned Space Flight, served as acting director of the Gemini program. William C. Schneider, Deputy Director of Manned Space Flight for Mission Operations, served as mission director on all Gemini flights beginning with Gemini VI.
Guenther Wendt was a McDonnell engineer who supervised launch preparations for both the Mercury and Gemini programs. His team was responsible for completion of the complex pad close-out procedures just prior to spacecraft launch, and he personally closed the hatches before flight. The astronauts appreciated his taking absolute authority over, and responsibility for, the condition of the spacecraft and developed a good-humored rapport with him.
McDonnell Gemini spacecraft
Length: 19 ft 5.79 m
Diameter: 10 ft 3.05 m
Volume: 90 ft³ 2.55 m³
Weights
Retrograde module: 1,303 lb 591 kilograms (1,300 lb)
Equipment module: 2,815 lb 1,277 kilograms (2,820 lb)
Total: 8,490 lb 3,851 kilograms (8,490 lb)
Rocket engines
Retros (solid fuel) x 4: 2,500 lbf ea 11.12 kN
Reentry Control System (N2O4/MMHH) x 16: 25 lbf ea 111 N
OAMS
(N2O4/MMHH) x 2: 85 lbf ea 378 N
OAMS
(N2O4/MMHH) x 6: 100 lbf ea 445 N
OAMS
(N2O4/MMHH) x 8: 25 lbf ea 111 N
Performance
Endurance: 14 days 206 orbits
Apogee: 250 miles 402 kilometres (250 mi)
Perigee: 100 miles 160 kilometres (99 mi)
Spacecraft delta v: 728 ft/s 222 m/s
Gemini spacecraft diagram
Project Gemini insignia
Replica of a Gemini spacecraft at the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum
Missions
Liftoff of Gemini 6A from Pad 19 with astronauts Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford aboard (15 December 1965)
There were 12 Gemini flights, including two unmanned flight tests. All were launched by Titan II rockets.
Unmanned events
Mission LV Serial No
Mission Dates Launch Time Duration Remarks
Gemini 1
GLV-1 12556 8–12 April 1964 16:01 UTC
03d 23h First test flight of Gemini
Gemini 2
GLV-2 12557 19 January 1965 14:03 UTC 00d 00h 18m 16s Suborbital flight to test heat shield
Manned events
Mission LV Serial No
Command Pilot Pilot Mission Dates Launch Time Duration
Gemini III
GLV-3 12558 Grissom
Young
23 March 1965 14:24 UTC 00d 04h 52m 31s
First manned Gemini flight, three orbits.
Gemini IV
GLV-4 12559 McDivitt
White
3–7 June 1965 15:15 UTC 04d 01h 56m 12s
Included first extravehicular activity (EVA) by an American; White's "space walk" was a 22 minute EVA exercise.
Gemini V
GLV-5 12560 Cooper
Conrad
21–29 August 1965 13:59 UTC 07d 22h 55m 14s
First week-long flight; first use of fuel cells for electrical power; evaluated guidance and navigation system for future rendezvous missions. Completed 120 orbits.
Gemini VII
GLV-7 12562 Borman
Lovell
4–18 December 1965 19:30 UTC 13d 18h 35m 01s
When the original Gemini VI mission was scrubbed because its Agena target for rendezvous and docking failed, Gemini VII was used for the rendezvous instead. Primary objective was to determine whether humans could live in space for 14 days.
Gemini VI-A
GLV-6 12561 Schirra
Stafford
15–16 December 1965 13:37 UTC 01d 01h 51m 24s
First space rendezvous accomplished with Gemini VII, station-keeping for over five hours at distances from 0.3 to 90 m (1 to 300 ft).
Gemini VIII
GLV-8 12563 Armstrong
Scott
16–17 March 1966 16:41 UTC 00d 10h 41m 26s
Accomplished first docking with another space vehicle, an unmanned Agena stage. While docked, a Gemini spacecraft thruster malfunction caused near-fatal tumbling of the craft, which, after undocking, Armstrong was able to overcome; the crew effected the first emergency landing of a manned U.S. space mission.
Gemini IX-A
GLV-9 12564 Stafford
Cernan
3–6 June 1966 13:39 UTC 03d 00h 21m 50s
Rescheduled from May to rendezvous and dock with augmented target docking adapter (ATDA) after original Agena target vehicle failed to orbit. ATDA shroud did not completely separate, making docking impossible. Three different types of rendezvous, two hours of EVA, and 44 orbits were completed.
Gemini X
GLV-10 12565 Young
Collins
18–21 July 1966 22:20 UTC 02d 22h 46m 39s
First use of Agena target vehicle's propulsion systems. Spacecraft also rendezvoused with Gemini VIII target vehicle. Collins had 49 minutes of EVA standing in the hatch and 39 minutes of EVA to retrieve experiment from Agena stage. 43 orbits completed.
Gemini XI
GLV-11 12566 Conrad
Gordon
12–15 September 1966 14:42 UTC 02d 23h 17m 08s
Gemini record altitude, 1,189.3 kilometres (739.0 mi) (739.2 mi) reached using Agena propulsion system after first orbit rendezvous and docking. Gordon made 33-minute EVA and two-hour standup EVA. 44 orbits.
Gemini XII
GLV-12 12567 Lovell
Aldrin
11–15 November 1966 20:46 UTC 03d 22h 34m 31s
Final Gemini flight. Rendezvoused and docked manually with its target Agena and kept station with it during EVA. Aldrin set an EVA record of 5 hours 30 minutes for one space walk and two stand-up exercises, and demonstrated improvements to previous EVA problems.
Gemini-Titan launches and serial numbers
Gemini 6A launch. USAF serial number location on Titan II.
The Gemini-Titan launch vehicles, like the Mercury-Atlas vehicles before them, were ordered by NASA through the U. S. Air Force and were in reality missiles. The Gemini-Titan II rockets were assigned U.S. Air Force serial numbers, which were painted in four places on each Titan II (on opposite sides on each of the first and second stages). U.S. Air Force crews maintained Launch Complex 19 and prepared and launched all of the Gemini-Titan II launch vehicles.
The USAF serial numbers assigned to the Gemini-Titan launch vehicles are given in the tables above. Fifteen Titan IIs were ordered in 1962 so the serial is "62-12XXX", but only "12XXX" is painted on the Titan II. The order for the last three of the 15 launch vehicles was cancelled on July 30, 1964, and they were never built. Serial numbers were, however, assigned to them prospectively: 12568 - GLV-13; 12569 - GLV-14; and 12570 - GLV-15.
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