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

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First Steps into Space: Projects Mercury and Gemini
have had a much higher probability of getting satisfactory pictures with it. It was a
case of lumping too much together - putting the gun and camera together.
White
The attachment of the VCM to the harness was a good type of attachment. It was
easy to disconnect the two velcro attach ments and move the chest pack in and out.
I had to do this both when I opened the spacecraft hatch, so it would clear the
hatch handle, and I had to move it out of the way when I closed the spacecraft and
pumped the hatch handle.
White
Now we can get into some conclusions. While I was out, I de cided to put a piece
of velcro strip on the side of the adap ter to see if later on we might use this as a
method for attaching items on the outside of the spacecraft, if the velcro was still
there and if it was in good shape. I think the velcro could be made into a very
useful item for a type of tether. I think you might even be able to do something
along the line of just having some female velcro on the gloves and pieces of the
male velcro at points along the adapter. This might provide us at least some
attachments so that we could maneuver ourselves back to the adapter section.
This would be about the simplest kind of handle that we could use. I do believe
that we need some type of handles on the outside of the spacecraft. Jim suggested
one on the nose and in the cover on the R and R section up there. I think this is
an area that we certainly have a possibility of using. I certainly would have found
it useful. I would still be a little hesitant, though, of breaking the antenna. You
would want to be sure that this wouldn’t be broken during EVA. I think the feeling
I had out there, again, was like holding onto an 8-foot tree. There wasn’t anything
to hold onto. You definitely need some kind of hand-holds. The decision to leave
the hatch open was one of the best decisions that we made. It provided me with a
center of operations for my work. I was able to stabilize myself by holding onto the
hatch. It was also surprising to me how much force it took to open the hatch the
first time against the preload and the actuators, due to the seals. One other very
good decision was to have me wear the heavy suit and Jim the light suit. I think this
was one of the things that made our operation easier. It certainly made my getting
back in the spacecraft and Jim’s assistance in closing the hatch much easier for
him. Also, I was handing him things in and out. He was performing quite a bit of
coordination in the operation with pieces of equipment that were going in and
out of the spacecraft, and I believe that by being in that light suit he was able to
do this much easier than if he had been in a heavy suit.
McDivitt
I might make a comment on that suit, too. When we opened up the hatch we
were in a vacuum. I noticed that the temperature of the suit dropped slightly so
that the suit was a little bit cooler inside. I was wondering if I was going to get too
cold through the suit, but the rest of the time we were out the temperature never
changed. I don’t remember looking at the suit inlet temperature, but the suit
itself stayed reasonably warm. I had sun in the cockpit, and I had the cockpit open
without the sun in it for a relatively long period of time, 4 or 5 minutes at a time.
This didn’t seem to affect my temperature inside the suit.