Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

Exploring the Unknown
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for crew safety. The orbital parameters of the next Gemini mission are
planned so that the orbit will decay to reentry within 24 hours after the
planned termination of the flight, should all other provisions for initiating
the de-orbiting landing sequence fail. . . . It is our judgment that the
knowledge needed to begin the design of such a space rescue system
is not yet available, but will come from our present developmental and
flight program. You may be assured, Mr. President, that we shall continue
to give first priority to considerations of astronaut safety (I-61). 134
NASA has tended to follow this approach to crew safety to the present, relying
on the development of the best possible technologies and processes to ensure
safety and reliability rather than some type of space rescue capability. It also developed
procedures in dealing with the necessity of informing the public about possible
accidents and loss of astronauts, should that eventuality occur (I-71). 135
Also in the aftermath of the successful Gemini III mission, NASA began planning
how to honor the astronauts after their flights. For the Mercury program there
had been considerable pomp and circumstances, usually involving medals awarded
by the President and ticker-tape parades. But Gemini was different, argued Julian
Scheer, NASA’s Director of Public Affairs. “We are now entering a new phase of
our program,” he wrote. “The image that is, perhaps, best for this nation is that of a
nation with this capability, a nation that goes about its work in an orderly and wellplanned
manner. We will fly these flights as best we can and put these flyers right
back into the flight schedule for a future mission” (I-62, I-63). 136 Because of this
desire to “routinize” spaceflight and in the process downplay the heroism of the
astronauts, except in truly exceptional circumstances, the aftermath of the Gemini
missions was more restrained than in Project Mercury. The Gemini III crew did
visit the White House and received medals from President Johnson. In the case of
the Gemini IV crew, President Johnson came to Houston to congratulate them and
NASA Administrator James Webb sent them, at the request of the President, to the
Paris International Air Show, where they met Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Later
missions were less pronounced in their public relations hoopla. 137
Based on the success of Gemini III, NASA accelerated plans to fly the next
mission, a 66-revolution, 4-day mission that began on 3 June and ended on 7 June
134. James E. Webb, Administrator, NASA, Memorandum to the President, “Space Rescue,”
2 June 1965. Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Division, NASA
Headquarters, Washington, DC.
135. NASA, “Gemini Contingency Information Plan,” 11 May 1966. Folder 18674, NASA
Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.
136. Julian Scheer, Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs, NASA, Memorandum to Mr.
Marvin Watson, The White House, 24 May 1965. Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection,
NASA History Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.
137. Marvin Watson, The White House, Memorandum for the President, 25 May 1965. Folder
18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Division, NASA Headquarters,
Washington, DC. On the “routinization” of power see Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the
Nature of Mass Movements (New York: Harper & Row, 1951), pp. 3–23, 137–155; Max Weber, “The Pure
Types of Legitimate Authority,” in Max Weber on Charisma and Institution Building: Selected Papers, S. N.
Eisenstadt, ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), p. 46.