Rocketman: Astronaut Pete Conrad's Incredible Ride to the Moon and Beyond by Nancy Conrad & Howard A. Klausner & Buzz Aldrin

Author:Nancy Conrad & Howard A. Klausner & Buzz Aldrin [Conrad, Nancy & Klausner, Howard A. & Aldrin, Buzz]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Astronautics
ISBN: 045121837X
Publisher: NAL Trade
Published: 2006-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

It wasn’t going well. Dick’s heart rate was at 150; he was out of breath, sweat dripping into his eyes and fogging his faceplate. And he was dangling on a string outside Gemini 11, 161 miles over the Earth.

“How ya doin’, Dickie-Dickie?”

“I’ll be okay.”

The capsule was spinning slowly, trying to wrap the tether around itself where they were docked with the Agena. They’d chased the Agena down on the first orbit, docking successfully with her on the first try. Gordon had to constantly fuss with it. And in the design phase, it was never considered how hard it was to grab onto a smooth, spinning metal surface with thick space gloves and boots, while trying to run a cordless ratchet wrench.

He was having a hell of a time of it, actually. And for the first time since he’d been an astronaut, Pete Conrad got scared. “What do you say we call it a day, huh?”

“No, I can get it.” Gordon grunted, cussing under and over his breath as he gutted through the checklist. He wrapped the slack in the tether around the Agena’s docking bar and across the adaptor segment. It was helping, but he was clearly struggling out there.

Pete winced at the wrapping of the tether. If they started spinning any faster, that thing would tangle, sure as hell. Dick might be able to extricate himself, might be able to make his way back to the hatch with no tether and try to cram himself inside.

Then again, he might not. He was completely out of breath now, heart rate right at the max. Even the ground guys were getting concerned.

Gemini 11 commander Conrad was nervous as hell, and even if it was his best friend, he’d rather pull rank now than make the command decision Deke and Kranz had talked about. Besides, this struggle wasn’t Dick’s fault. He’d remember this first EVA as “like trying to tie your shoe with one hand while holding on to the drawer with the other.”

Yeah. Except he was also wearing thick gloves and a stiff heavy suit, and hanging in space on a thread, and his dresser was going seventeen thousand miles per hour with no drawer handles to hold on to.

“Okay, Gordon. Item D-thirteen has ascertained that we definitely need handles and footholds on the Gemini. I’m calling this one a wrap. Get back in here, and let’s go find a beer somewhere.”

Dick got back inside, but it wasn’t easy. The man was exhausted.

They undocked from the Agena after doing some infrared star photography. Command Pilot Pete lined them up for a pinpoint reentry, and nailed their landing in the West Atlantic after a three-day flight.

The whole thing went in the logbook about as perfect as it gets. Fuel cells, check. Chase down and dock on the first orbit, check. Pete drove the Gemini 11 right into the Agena’s docking port like it was a runabout out on Clear Lake. EVA? Difficult, but it taught them what they needed to know. Dick saved the other spacewalkers a heck of a lot of struggle and needless danger.

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