Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight (20 page)

“We have serious problems here,” Dave told him. “We’re spinning and we’re disengaged from the Agena.”

“Okay, we’ve got a ‘Spacecraft Free’ indication here,” Fucci told the crew. “What seems to be the problem?”

“We’re rolling,” Armstrong told him.

Houston Mission Control was listening and suddenly the room was fully awake and alert.

Rookie CapCom Bill Anders managed one word, “Roger.”

“
Gemini 8
, CSQ.”

“Stand by,” Neil told the tracking ship.

“Roger.”

Those listening on the worldwide network were not aware of just how dangerous the situation was aboard
Gemini 8
, and they stood by while Neil fought to save his spacecraft, firing his reentry thrusters, doing everything he could to regain control with Dave quickly responding to everything he asked.

They fought and the ground stood by and after 37 seconds of silence, Dave told them, “Okay, we’re regaining control of the spacecraft slowly, in RCS direct.” “Roger, Copy,” Bill Anders acknowledged, and thumbs went up in Mission Control.

“We’re pulsing the RCS pretty slowly here so we don’t control roll right,” Neil told the ground. “We’re trying to kill our roll rate.”

“Okay, fine,” Anders acknowledged. “Keep at it.”

“
8
, CSQ,” James Fucci called from the
Coastal Sentry Quebec.
“How much RCS have you used and are you just on one ring?”

“That’s right,” Neil quickly confirmed, knowing what the tracking ship was getting at. “We are on one ring, trying to save the other ring for reentry.”

CapCom Bill Anders caught a hint of a “can do” in Neil’s voice, and he told the astronaut, “Everything’s okay.”

And it was.

Once the firing of the reentry thrusters had stabilized
Gemini 8
, Neil and Dave began firing and rechecking their thrusters one at a time. When they hit the switch for number eight, their spacecraft began to roll again. They had found the culprit.

*   *   *

Gemini 8
’s emergency had all the lights on at Houston’s Manned Spacecraft Center with the lights in Mission Control burning the brightest. Every single person there was hanging onto every single word from the Gemini control commentator:

We are 8 hours and 3 minutes into the flight of
Gemini 8
. And in view of the trouble encountered at 7 hours into the flight as reported earlier, the flight director has determined to terminate the flight in the 7-3 area. We plan to bring the flight down on the 7th orbit in the 3rd, what we call the 3rd zone, which is approximately 500 miles east of Okinawa, it’s in the far west Pacific. Our situation out there is as follows—a destroyer named the
Mason
is about 160 miles away at this time, it is proceeding towards the point, which should come very close to the … well it may be a little delayed, get there after the landing itself. The first estimate I have on the retrofire time is ten hours and four minutes into the mission, in other words two hours from now. Landing should take place some 25 to 26 minutes later.

In addition to the
Mason
, a C-54 has been dispatched from Tachikawa Air Force Base in Japan; it’s proceeding to the point. Another C-54 is proceeding to the point from Okinawa. Another location here on the landing point is quoted to me as 630 nautical miles south of Yokosuka, Japan. The weather conditions out there are partly cloudy, visibility 10 miles, and the landing will be made in full daylight. It’s 12:30
P.M.
out in the 7-3 area.

This is Gemini Control at 8 hours, 6 minutes into the flight.

*   *   *

Riding backward with only a disappearing band of blue on the horizon, Neil and Dave were ready to begin their emergency reentry in total darkness.

High over the Arabian Sea Neil Armstrong hit
Gemini 8
’s brakes. He fired their four retro-rockets beginning a never-before-flown reentry through the dark night over India, Burma, and then into sunrise over China and the East China Sea. All the way through reentry, they could not expect contact with any tracking station or ship if needed. The two astronauts were it. They only had themselves.

During the mission following his emergency return from orbit, Neil Armstrong listens intently in Mission Control to the troubles his friend Gene Cernan was having trying to maneuver in
Gemini 9
’s EVA without support devices. (NASA)

*   *   *

In Neil’s home Janet Armstrong stared at her NASA squawk box. The speaker relayed the astronauts’ transmissions along with the mission commentator’s explanations. By her side was world-renowned
Life
magazine photographer Ralph Morse.
Life
magazine had a contract with the astronauts to tell their story—a clever way for the space flyers to raise their pay above the military grade, and their growing families were thankful.

Ralph Morse’s photographs from the world’s hottest assignments weren’t only renowned; Morse enjoyed a reputation as a very likeable fellow. He was a friend to most and Janet found comfort with Ralph in her home. She needed moral support during Neil and Dave’s life-threatening plunge through the pitch-black atmosphere.

Janet tried desperately not to miss a single word from Gemini control:

The pilots were counted down in the blind via the Kano, Nigeria Station, and Neil Armstrong, while he said nothing leading up to the point of retrofire, came back with a very reassuring “We have all four retros, all four have fired.” A cheer went up here in the control center, and I’m sure everyone can understand why. The contact from here is through the Kano station. Armstrong, after the maneuver, went on to relate that everything was in a stable condition and seemed to be proceeding satisfactorily. We want to emphasize again that there is practically no communication expected now for some time. We are going to try to reach them via the
Coastal Sentry Quebec
on HF after they emerge from blackout, but that signal at best will be marginal. Probably our first authoritative information will come via one of those C-54 aircraft maneuvering in the area east of Okinawa.

“This is Gemini control, Houston.”

*   *   *

Neil and Dave shifted in their seats for comfort as their spacecraft edged into the atmosphere. Heat built up.
Gemini 8
swayed slightly in its automated and meticulously computer-controlled reentry. Any departure from its established protocols could have serious repercussions and then Neil would have to take over manually and fly the danger-filled reentry.

“I keep thinking there’s something we’ve forgotten,” he told Dave. “But I don’t know what it is.”

“As far as I know, we’ve done everything,” Dave reassured him.

Suddenly the two flyers were enveloped by what appeared to be a devouring fireball in their dive earthward. All they could do was monitor their spacecraft’s systems as it carved an ionized tunnel through the thickening air.

In this ionization envelope there were no radio signals in and none out, and Neil and Dave were riding little more than a blazing meteor. But despite their apprehension, they were cool inside as they watched the brilliant orange teardrop grow—its flames burning their path through the atmosphere.

All the while Janet and Ralph were straining to hear any report through the broadcast static and those in Mission Control were feeling equally helpless. There was simply no way to reach
Gemini 8
, no way to talk to Neil and Dave. Those on the ground were in a sense as alone as the two astronauts.

Everyone waited and the
Gemini 8
astronauts felt their weight grow as they entered the full deceleration of their reentry, and with the slowing spacecraft came a more gentle oscillating from side to side and suddenly Neil and Dave were at 50,000 feet. The reentry from hell was almost over, and they were enjoying a bright day with their normal weight as their drogue chute came out, stabilizing their spacecraft for its main parachute to blossom and drop them safely into the Pacific 480 miles east of Okinawa.

A recovery aircraft parachuted in three rescue swimmers, who took their positions alongside the floating
Gemini 8
and Mission Control reported: “The swimmers in the water have been in voice contact with the crew. The astronauts report all on board is well and they say their condition is okay. Neil and Dave are standing in their seats waving and smiling.”

Janet Armstrong jumped to her feet and began clapping and laughing. “Thank goodness,” she said with a big smile. “Thank goodness.” Being the wife of a test pilot wasn’t the easiest job around.

*   *   *

Neil and Dave had performed their reentry with great skill. They had to end their flight early with Neil telling the media, “We’re disappointed we couldn’t complete the mission, but the part we did complete, and what we did experience, we wouldn’t trade for anything.”

Gemini 8
safely back on Earth—on the Pacific Ocean anyway. Left to right: Dave Scott and Neil Armstrong sit in their spacecraft secured by a flotation collar supplied by three Navy Rescue swimmers. (NASA)

For weeks to come the crew of
Gemini 8
was subjected to a number of debriefings and reviews with bosses and Gemini support groups—each group with a special interest.

Time and time again Neil and Dave told them everything they knew and the second-guessing began. Why didn’t Neil do this? Why didn’t he do that?

John Glenn called the criticism of Armstrong’s performance aboard
Gemini 8
nonsense. “You’ll never hear it from me,” Glenn said emphatically. “I don’t think anybody was as experienced a pilot as Neil was at the time. He assessed when it was getting beyond his control, and he assessed it right.”

Joining Glenn in Armstrong’s defense were two of the top managers in NASA, Chief Flight Director Chris Kraft and the director of the Manned Spacecraft Center Dr. Robert Gilruth.

“Armstrong’s touch was as fine as any astronaut,” said Kraft, a veteran flight director. He quickly added, “Neil calmly reported the emergency, and when we learned the crew was being tossed around and beginning to suffer from greyed-out vision, it was clearly a life-threatening situation in space. The worst we’d ever encountered.

“Dr. Gilruth and I both first thought Neil was having trouble with the stick. It never occurred to us that he had a stuck thruster. If we had heard about the problem when they were still docked, we would have told them to do exactly what they did, ‘Get off that thing!’

“The spin rate was up as high as 550 degrees per second.” Kraft continued. “That’s about the rate at which you begin to lose consciousness or the capability to operate. Neil Armstrong realized they were in very serious trouble, and he took all the power off the Gemini to try to stop the spin, and then figured the only way to recover was to activate the reentry attitude-control system. That was truly a fantastic recovery by a human being under such circumstances and really proved why we have test pilots in those ships. Had it not been for Neil’s good flying, we probably would have lost that crew.”

Most NASA managers in the agency top tier like Kraft and Gilruth were pleased with Neil and Dave’s performances, but for Neil and Dave their first concern was What did Deke think? Deke Slayton was their immediate boss and they knew their future in spaceflight pretty much rode in his hands.

Once Deke settled the facts of the
Gemini 8
emergency in his mind, he came to the conclusion that Neil Armstrong’s abilities to reason, to think, to handle emergencies, to fly the hell out of anything from the Wright brothers planes to rocket ships, and the great support provided by Dave Scott, made them both leading candidates to land Apollo’s lunar modules on the moon.

Neil would command
Apollo 11
and Dave would command
Apollo 15
, a fact that Deke would keep to himself until the right time, and he moved them back into the flow of things, telling Neil and Dave to go and help those trying to solve spaceflight’s EVA problems.