Atlas-Agena & Gemini 12 Launches (NBC Audio)
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- čas přidán 17. 11. 2021
- The launch of the Atlas/Agena and Gemini 12 spacecraft on November 11th 1966 with audio from NBC.
Onboard the Gemini are astronauts Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin
Using available footage, cine film, pictures. All courtesy NASA.
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Regards LM5 - Věda a technologie
Gotta love the "pad fuhrer", Gunther Wendt!
Many do not realize how important the Gemini/Agena missions were for the future of space flight and made the moon landings possible as rendezvous and docking techniques started here.
Also I am always amazed how small the Gemini capsules were. It was not until the Apollo capsule launched before Astronauts could truly float around, with the exception of the handful of space walks.
As a young lad I would watch every Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launch I could. I always loved hearing that whoop sound at main engine start on the Titan II. Fun times.
Great memories
I think that sound is from pumps starting the fuel flow.
Jay Barbree…legendary. But Jack King? That’s the voice of God, right there! Another terrific service to history by LM5. Many thanks for bringing these back to life. Palpable excitement to this day
Thanks Jim 👍
Ever read Barbree's book?? He nearly killed himself trying to get in shape for a crack at the "reporter in space" program, which was to be a follow-on to the "teacher in space" program. Of course Christa McAuliffe's death on Challenger brought all that sort of stuff to an abrupt end. NASA had been handing out shuttle seats like candy at Christmas, flying Congressmen and Senators overseeing NASA's budget, winners of shuttle contractor company contests (like Greg Jarvis who also died on Challenger) and NASA, desperate for positive public relations trying to impress the public that had grown bored of "routine" shuttle flights and questioning the expense and necessity of it all, had concocted a whole slew of various "common man in space" programs to fill their "payload specialist" seats on shuttles... The "teacher in space" was just the first, to be followed by a "reporter in space" and "artist in space" (for which there was serious consideration of flying singer/songwriter John Denver). Jay Barbree had been reporting on every manned spaceflight since the beginning, and had established himself even then as something of a legend in space circles, and when he heard about the "reporter in space" program he became determined to get the seat. So much so, that he basically had a heart attack and collapsed and nearly died running on the beach near KSC; had it not been for some people seeing him and administering CPR until help could arrive, he would have died. Of course in the wake of Challenger, all such "PR fluff" "common man in space" programs were canceled and NASA was called to explain itself for the seats it had already handed out in various schemes... Interestingly enough, Barbara Morgan, Christa McAuliffe's backup, remained in the astronaut corps and eventually flew about a decade later, doing the "teacher in space" mission, by which time basically nobody cared.
Later! OL J R :)
there goes buzz and jim what a launch thanks.
Excellent coverage of the final Gemini flight.
The images of Buzz Aldrin between 27:14 and 32:47 show him familiarising himself with the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit when he was Gene Cernan's back-up on Gemini 9A.
Of all the big sports happening today..once I saw this pop up I forgot about all of that. What a gem 💎 👍!
Nice to see that, in the early scene, when the crew enter the vehicle for a test session, Buzz Aldrins suit still has the heavy pants that should protect him from the AMU exhaust. Later, the AMU was canceled, and Buzz could wear a lighter suit.
I'm envious of those who were alive to witness the early space program. Being born right after the ASTP, the shuttle was what I grew up with. The shuttle was neat in its own way aside from the Challenger disaster. But my interest was mostly with Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. It must have been thrilling.
I should have mentioned Columbia too.
I had begun the 7th Grade at the time of this launch.
Before the Shuttle, a space fan would recognize the names of ALL of our astronauts. But, in our house, watching coverage was on a small B&W TV.
It's hard to believe that at Gemini XII we were only two years from putting humans in Lunar orbit, and less than three years from landing.
Yeah I was born in '71 right as the Moon landings were starting to wind down... I vaguely remember the ASTP launch in '75, and some of the stuff from Skylab.
Growing up in the 70's and 80's, we heard a lot about the shuttle, but mostly it was the promises that were unkept that stick in my mind. I remember in the late 70's in grade school the excitement NASA was whipping up with stuff like "O'Neill cylinders" or gigantic space colonies, space based solar power stations with mile wide solar arrays orbiting Earth, beaming their power safely down to Earth using microwaves to gigantic microwave antennas on the ground, which converted the power to electricity for distribution through the grid, etc. Of course it was all a pipe dream, oversold fairy tales by a NASA desperate to maintain its funding and relevance, particularly in the "stagflation" of the 70's... Shuttle was delayed time and time again, so by the time it finally DID fly the Skylab had crashed back to Earth nearly 2 years before. The shuttle SEEMED exciting to a young teen, at least until the Challenger disaster really laid its shortcomings bare in early 1986 when I was a freshman in high school. The more I learned about the shuttle over the years since, the more I've become unimpressed by it... it was ALWAYS an experimental, highly complex, overly expensive, and technologically brittle vehicle, in no small part due to the bad design compromises made when it was engineered in the early-mid 70's. By the time of Challenger, it was clear that the shuttle was NEVER going to be the "cheap, easy, routine, and SAFE" access to space that was promised, with most of those promises being based on "cooked" numbers right from the start, which is something I've always found unacceptable. Those in the know were skeptical of the numbers NASA was putting out to justify and "sell" the shuttle and get/keep it funded, like the now infamous "Mathematica Study" done at the time. NASA sold the shuttle based on ridiculously low turnaround times and refurbishment costs/recurring costs (for things like orbiter refurbishment, new External Tanks which were disposed of after each mission, SRB refurbishment, etc) and ridiculously high flight rates (from early "program estimates" of 70 flights a year, later pared down to merely 50 flights per year (every week!) to finally 25 flights a year (every 2 weeks!) The highest flight rates the shuttle ever achieved was 9 flights in the 12 months preceding Challenger, and we know how that turned out (loss of vehicle, loss of crew). It was unsustainable and they wouldn't admit it, just kept pushing and kept pushing TRYING DESPERATELY to make the shuttle approach something like what they had promised. IMHO shuttle SHOULD have been retired after Challenger, and replaced with a low-cost launch vehicle (like the Jarvis launcher which grew out of post-Challenger studies) and a reusable Apollo-based modernized capsule. At least with that we'd have had the basis for a heavy lift vehicle (that could actually launch large cargo far beyond shuttle capabilities into low Earth orbit, and beyond, something shuttle could NEVER do.) BUT alas it was decided there was too much "sunk cost" in the shuttle and too much "institutional inertia" to do away with it, so they built another orbiter to replace the shattered Challenger and kept flying the things, basically into perpetuity. It would take the loss of ANOTHER shuttle vehicle and crew to finally drive the point home that the shuttle was a risky, expensive, and outdated piece of hardware that had outlived its usefulness and needed to be replaced, and that the entire focus of manned spaceflight needed to be reevaluated. Hence the decision to FINALLY retire the shuttle after the Columbia disaster. If we had continued to fly shuttles, we WOULD have lost another one, and having already lost 40% of the shuttle orbiter fleet to disasters caused by design deficiencies, finally the correct decision was made. There's been more advancement in spaceflight in the last 10 years than in the previous 30 years of the shuttle era... Later! OL J R :)
I do know what you mean by that! I myself was born in October of 1965, which I believe was during the historical Gemini space program. I lived in Satellite Beach, Florida which is in Central Florida known as America's space coast from 1969 to 1971 during the Apollo space program. During that time, my late father was stationed out at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. We lived in the base housing units on a base called Patrick Air Force Base in Satellite Beach. So he had to commute out to The Cape from Patrick because only badged and unifomed personnel were allowed out there. We saw quite a few Apollo rocket launches while living in Satellite Beach. Those were the mighty Saturn V rocket launch vehicles and man were they loud and powerful! I did enjoy the space shuttle program as well but, like you said, the early space program was the most interesting for me as well. I would go to the libraries and check out just about every book there was on the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs. I would read them for hours after my homework and school work was done.
Every launch was exciting and heavily covered until the end of Apollo. The Shuttle got routine...way too routine.
Awesome as a possum with a blossom audio recording of NBC News Radio's coverage of the Atlas-Agena and Gemini 12 launches!!! Had no idea that Jay Barbree's voice was so low at one time. LOL!! I've been used to hearing him with a slightly higher voice. I guess advancing age can do that to a person. LOL!! (x2)
I remember watching this launch with my father. I recall him commenting at the time how hard it was to understand what the astronauts said. I have to agree, listening to it again today. We definitely noticed the difference in the quality of the Apollo transmissions.
Buzz Aldrin figured out the EVA problems and proved it.Since then we owe him a lot of Credit.
Handholds, foot restraints, neutral buoyancy training...
All of what we know about how to perform extravehicular activities today... We owe to Mr. Aldrin.
I like how the capsules shape. :)
Excellent work (as usual).
Do you know what the pad "joke gifts" were? Looks like Lovell got a stack for scrubbed mission procedures(?) and whose face was that on Aldrin's joke? They sure looked calm and having a good time.
Loved Project Gemini. Built the model during their missions.
Thanks Thomas
Phew, the Agena made it!
Kind of an inside joke.
Search for _"On The Shoulders Of Titans"_
Agena was considered known and reliable, but stumbled with Gemini.
I was there at the Cape!!!
What was it like?
Nicely done - thanks (as usual).
I notice that some of the footage of Buzz Aldrin in EVA training was from his stint as back-up Pilot on Gemini 9A (hence the AMU).
Didn't NASA briefly consider having Buzz Aldrin use the AMU on Gemini 12?
I remember that most of the problems that occurred during the Gemini program seemed to be connected to the Atlas-Agena rocket.
@13:19 Those Spacesuits leak pretty good
Ending a successful Gemini program with 2 astronauts that would eventually make history. Unfortunately, in 10 short weeks, a devastating blow to the start of the manned Apollo program that rocked NASA to its' core.
The final launches of the Gemini program...
The Flying Men's Room!
I’m loving the new intro
Am glad someone noticed!
@@lunarmodule5 to be honest, you actually had me confused. I thought I was watching a video on Gemini 8 when I saw that Gemini capsule spinning haha!
@@wallasaurus_9241not sure that I can do individual mission intros...but maybe in time
32:41 Priming the rocket, bringing the fuel and oxidizer from the rocket's internal tanks to its combustion chamber.
Gee, I hope those guys hanging around the launch pad at 8:40 got out of there in time. 😆
Aldrin went to the moon in Apollo 11, Lovell was supposed to land on the moon on Apollo 13.
A lot of what if's with the crew assignments. Lovell originally was on the Apollo 11 crew with Aldrin as CMP. Do to Collins neck surgery he and Lovell swapped....Collins was the original CMP on Apollo 8. Had that not happened Lovell would probably rotated thru and commanded Apollo 17...not Gene Cernan.....who only got that assignment after Collins pulled out of the rotation after 11.
37:04 - People born in the last 35 years or so say "what's that?"
Thanks, LM-5. Always waiting for what you’ve got coming. Way too much commentary during the launchings in my opinion. I always believed the old balloon tank Atlas was the best sounding of all the rockets, whatever the size. Didn’t get to hear much this time. (I am still watching Apollo 12. Magnificent!)
Thanks Jim!
Buzz Aldrin
Submersed a capsule into a pool and showed everyone how you work in a neutral buoyancy environment just like it would be in zero G.
Furthermore he figured out the orbital mechanics (physics) for orbital rendezvous.
Two MAJOR contributions to manned space flight!
Well, he didn't accomplish those things single-handedly.
But in his senior years, he dished out exactly what that overbearing flat-earther reporter deserved, all by himself!
@@Vector_Ze Yes he did those things himself. Research it.