Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon, Revised Edition (Outward Odyssey: A People's History of Spaceflight) by Burgess Colin & Doolan Kate

Author:Burgess, Colin & Doolan, Kate [Burgess, Colin]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: HIS037070 History / Modern / 20th Century
ISBN: 9780803285989
Publisher: UNP - Nebraska
Published: 2016-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

Hank West, who by now had retired from the air force and was working for General Dynamics, made the following observation: “Remembering Ed’s competiveness, persistence and love of adventure, I suspect he must have done everything possible to make sure that he was the second man and not the command pilot on that Gemini mission, because he would have known it was the copilot who would actually get the choice of walking in space. The excitement and enthusiasm in his voice and actions during the event, to the extent of almost having to be physically reeled back aboard the spacecraft, clearly showed the Ed I had always known.”

Gemini IV made sixty-two orbits of the Earth, flying a total of 1,609,700 miles before splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean and eventual pickup by the recovery team from the USS Wasp. Skeptics had predicted that the astronauts would suffer some horrible side effects from long-duration flight—that after opening the hatches the recovery crew would find dead, badly debilitated, or unconscious astronauts. However the recovery helicopter observed an entirely different scene as he hovered overhead. “They were like a couple of kids playing on the beach, splashing in the salt water.” White was doing something that resembled deep knee bends. Both astronauts were in fine shape, although White had suffered some minor seasickness.

Borman, who was the backup commander to McDivitt, said after the flight that White astounded everybody, including the astronaut’s doctor, Charles Berry, “by doing a jig on the flight deck. The next day, White saw a few Marines and midshipmen having a tug of war and joined them. Quite a guy was Edward Higgins White II.”

White later commented on his post-flight fitness. “I felt so good, I didn’t know whether to hop, skip, jump or to walk on my hands.” When discussing unsubstantiated reports of the astronauts’ “distinct aromas” after the flight, White quipped, “I thought we smelled fine; it was all these people on the carrier that smelled strange.”

In spite of their obvious delight in the mission the astronauts had experienced some practical concerns during the flight. They found the work-rest cycles to be inadequate. They worried about running out of water and became overly conservative in their water intake, putting them at the risk of dehydration. In addition White felt that just four or five hours after eating his energy levels were going downhill in a more pronounced manner than they did on Earth. When he enjoyed his next meal his energy levels bounced back up. He had lost eight pounds but quickly regained the weight within days of return.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.