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Author
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Topic: Gemini-Titan II with white spacecraft?
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Ronpur
Member Posts: 1250
From: Brandon, Fl
Registered: May 2012
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posted 02-01-2018 08:01 AM
   
Questions have arisen over this photo (s64-13534). While the caption says Gemini 3, the booster is actually from GT-1. But the white spacecraft is the puzzle. It looks too smooth to be a protective covering like in this photo of Gemini 12. Is it a boiler plate or mock-up of some type?  |
Lasv3
Member Posts: 450
From: Bratislava, Slovakia
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted 02-01-2018 10:03 AM
Can't this phenomenon be caused by the lighting? |
Headshot
Member Posts: 1048
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 02-01-2018 11:24 AM
I would say it is not a lighting effect. There is a similar picture on page 142 of the January 1965 issue of National Geographic. The floodlit black re-entry module is easily differentiated from the white adapter module.I have seen pictures of some Gemini spacecraft, totally wrapped in a white material (maybe for weather protection?), as they were lifted and secured to the Titan II Launch Vehicle. I believe this is the case as the raised ring seen at the junction of the Re-Entry Control Section and the Rendezvous and Recovery Section is part of the lift mechanism used to haul the Gemini Spacecraft up to the top of the Titan. Perhaps there is another explanation. |
heng44
Member Posts: 3558
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 02-02-2018 12:31 PM
Yes, that is a Gemini "structural simulator", which was stacked on the Titan II on February 5, 1964. The actual Gemini 1 spacecraft was mated on March 3. |
Headshot
Member Posts: 1048
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 02-02-2018 01:34 PM
And there is our other explanation. Thanks so much Ed.Of course the next question is, "Whatever happened to that structural simulator?" Any takers? |
Ronpur
Member Posts: 1250
From: Brandon, Fl
Registered: May 2012
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posted 02-03-2018 10:50 AM
Thank you! We had this photo pop up on Facebook last week and it was a puzzle we needed solved. |
NavyPilot
Member Posts: 65
From:
Registered: Nov 2015
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posted 02-03-2022 08:29 AM
Aviation Week of 16 Sep 63 has an excellent photo of the GSS being shipped to the Cape. |
dtemple
Member Posts: 751
From: Longview, Texas, USA
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 02-13-2022 04:57 PM
In regard to what became of this structural test article, the most obvious possibility is that it was ultimately scrapped. However, there are one or two Gemini boilerplate spacecraft on display at/near the Air Force side of Cape Canaveral (outdoor museum and maybe an area school — tried checking the Field Guide to American Spacecraft, but found the website is now defunct).(On edit: The site has evidently gone from a ".com" to ".org" thus the reason my bookmarked link did not work. Two boilerplate Gemini spacecraft are listed as being at the Canaveral Air Force Station.) Could the white test article have been converted into a recovery training aid, repainted black, and now be on display? The test article, though, may not have been suitable for the suggested purpose. |
schnappsicle
Member Posts: 407
From: Houston, TX, USA
Registered: Jan 2012
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posted 02-24-2022 07:45 AM
quote:
Originally posted by dtemple:
However, there are one or two Gemini boilerplate spacecraft on display at/near the Air Force side of Cape Canaveral.
There is also one on the grounds of the Johnson Space Center in Houston near the Mission Control Center. If you take a tour to MCC, you can see it on your right as you turn into the parking lot of the MCC. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 47887
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 02-24-2022 08:31 AM
The Gemini capsule at Johnson Space Center is a modern mockup made by Guard Lee (originally for the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and moved to Houston in 2010). |
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