|
Author
|
Topic: Gemini-Titan 10 recovered Titan II first stage?
|
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3570
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
|
posted 01-22-2023 05:10 PM
   
The Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum describes its recently acquired Titan II first stage segment from Gemini-Titan 5 as "the only recovered booster from the entirety of America's early crewed space programs, from Mercury through Apollo."I found this Air Force Space Museum certificate with an actual fragment of metal retrieved from the first stage of the Titan II booster rocket that launched Gemini-Titan-10 (GT-10) in July 1966 with John Young and Michael Collins. To my understanding, a large portion of the first stage had been recovered from the Atlantic. I don't think the GT-10 COA was done in error as I did hear of a second Titan first stage that had been recovered as well many years ago. Or just perhaps, maybe, the Air Force did in fact have the wrong booster flight of this "GT-10" mission in which it had actually been from GT-5.  |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 49843
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 01-22-2023 05:12 PM
I checked the Gemini 10 mission report and no mention is made of the first stage being recovered, but it does note that the "first stage oxidizer tank ruptured just after separation." So maybe large fragments of the first stage were found, distinguishing them from the intact upper segment of the GT-5 first stage? |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3570
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
|
posted 01-22-2023 05:53 PM
Let me check on my next visit to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum and it was the U.S. Space Force Historical Foundation that made the statement in which GT-5 had been the only recovered booster from an American manned U.S. space launch from Mercury to Apollo. |
thisismills
Member Posts: 484
From: Michigan
Registered: Mar 2012
|
posted 01-22-2023 06:25 PM
I too have seen a couple of the GT-10 launch vehicle presentations Example one and Example two as shown above. |
Headshot
Member Posts: 1169
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012
|
posted 01-22-2023 06:54 PM
If anyone learns what U.S. Navy ship might have picked up any GT-10 booster debris, please post it here and I will see if I can access the ship's log. |
randyc
Member Posts: 860
From: Denver, CO USA
Registered: May 2003
|
posted 01-23-2023 02:06 PM
There are also lucites with a small section of the Gemini 11 first stage. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 49843
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 01-23-2023 02:20 PM
If I am not mistaken, all of those lucites have the same error in them; they state the crew as "Gordon and Cooper" when for Gemini-Titan 11 it should be Conrad and Gordon. It has always been assumed "Cooper" was the error, but what if that was correct and the piece is from GT-5? The person preparing the lucite may have looked up the info based on "Gordon" and assumed it was Gemini 11. Of course, all of that is conjecture is on my part. What is needed is contemporary reports of the stage or fragments being recovered. |
randyc
Member Posts: 860
From: Denver, CO USA
Registered: May 2003
|
posted 01-23-2023 03:00 PM
That's an interesting theory Robert. I think most collectors think that the error is stating the crew as Gordon and Cooper instead of Gordon and Conrad since it is identified as being from the GT-11 Titan but perhaps it is from GT-5 and should have identified the crew as Conrad and Cooper.Let's see if a member of collectSPACE can find a reference to the GT-11 Titan first stage being recovered. |
Headshot
Member Posts: 1169
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012
|
posted 01-23-2023 05:38 PM
I found no mention of booster fragments being recovered in AW&ST's coverage of the Gemini 10 and 11 missions. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 49843
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 01-23-2023 06:06 PM
The New York Times' archives only has mention of the GT-5 recovery.Interestingly, a very brief article notes that the GT-5 prime recovery ship also recovered a piece of another rocket. From a UPI reporter filing from on board the USS Lake Champaign on Aug. 26, 1965: A piece of silver and gray wreckage, possibly from a Saturn rocket launched July 30, was recovered from the western Atlantic Ocean today by a Gemini 5 recovery ship. The part was not from the Titan 2 booster that shot Lieut. Col. Gordon Cooper Jr. and Lieut. Comdr. Charles Conrad Jr. into orbit Aug. 21. The July 30 launch was of AS-105, the fifth and final orbital flight of a boilerplate Apollo spacecraft, on SA-10, the tenth and final Saturn I rocket. I wonder what became of that piece? |
advertisement