Our Cosmic Ancestors Read Online Free PDF

1966. Another Agena rocket was launched on 1 June, but some trouble on the launching pad delayed the start of Gemini 9 for two days. Finally, on 3 June, Stafford and Cernan lifted off and caught the Agena
after only three orbits. However, they could not dock properly because the locking system wasn't fully opened.
    On the second day of the Gemini 9 mission Cernan stepped out into space but had to come back in a hurry. He was using up his energy four times faster than had been expected and had difficulties with orientation. Finally he could not see anything, because his helmet fogged up completely. The planned experiment with an individual rocket propulsion system for the astronauts floating in space had to be abandoned, and the whole mission lasted only three days.
    Gemini 10 was launched on 18 July, 1966, with John Young and Michael Collins aboard, 101 minutes after an Agena rocket had blasted off in a wrong orbit, again because of a computer error. The astronauts had to use up sixty per cent of their fuel before they caught up with the Agena and docked. The two linked ships then used the big Agena rocket motor to reach an orbit 480 miles up and find the other Agena (of Gemini 8) that was orbiting the globe. The first triple rendezvous in space was accomplished.
    Gemini 11 took off on 12 September, 1966, with Richard Gordon and Charles Conrad aboard, 1 hour 37 minutes after lift-off of an Agena rocket. It took them only 94 minutes to catch it and dock, an important achievement in fuel economy. The next day Gordon took a walk in space detaching a cable from the Agena and fastening it to Gemini. This operation was scheduled to last for 107 minutes, but Gordon (like Cernan before) had trouble with his respiration, tired fast, and ran out of breath in 38 minutes. He had to return to the Gemini capsule, whereupon both astronauts started up the big Agena motor and lifted themselves to a new altitude record of 850 miles above Earth. In this new orbit Gordon made another space walk without difficulties.
    Gemini 12, the last of the series, had its lift-off on 11 November, 1966 with James Lovell and Edwin Aldrin aboard. It made the link-up with its Agena on the third orbit. Three space walks were planned, but Mission Control discovered some instability in the linked-up pair and refused permission to use the big Agena motor. Instead the astronauts had to climb to a higher orbit using only the small auxiliary motors. That was accomplished and Aldrin had his three walks without incident. As we see now, not one of the ten Gemini flights was free of troubles or obstacles, but all missions were accomplished approximately on time and without any loss of life. That was possible mainly because of the composure and the extraordinary technical competence of the astronauts. The European astronautical engineers should learn a lesson from these experiences of the American space program. They are not, as they think, the only ones with troubles. Three of the most capable American astronauts died when the real drama started, in the fire on the ground in the Apollo 6 capsule during the very last test before the flight.
    But the astronauts were not limited to equipment troubles. They saw things during their missions that could not be discussed with anyone outside of NASA. It is very difficult to obtain any specific information from NASA, which still exercises a very strict control over any disclosure of these events.
    It seems that all Apollo and Gemini flights were followed, both at a distance and sometimes also quite closely, by space vehicles of extraterrestrial origin - flying saucers, or UFO's (unidentified flying objects), if you want to call them by that name. Every time it occurred, the astronauts informed Mission Control, who then ordered absolute silence.
    I think that Walter Schirra aboard Mercury 8 was the first of the astronauts to use the code name 'Santa Claus' to indicate the presence of flying saucers next to space capsules. However, his