Ignition. Liftoff. Liftoff. Roger. Feel pressure a little high. Roger. Slightly low, no problem. Roger. Go for staging. Roger, staging. That thrust is looking a little high. Roger. Status check . Go. Go. Guidance . Standby. Go. Go, flight. Roger. Roger. Standby. Standing by. Over 300 feet per second. 7295. 72 is 24860. Roger, no go. You are no go. No go. Do you have a time . Roger, flight area charlie at nine plus 20. Roger. We are going for area charlie. Retrofiring at nine plus 20. Roger. Give me sometimes some times. No swells. Destroyer is the low. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 retro fire. Roger. Fire one. Rocket two. This was not an actual Gemini Mission, nobody left the ground. They did not abort. We have edited together and isolate a launch with shots of Flight Control assimilating the launch. The flight was simulated from a room in the mission construed Center Control center, and flight simulation is done by computers. They will undergo 11 days of simulation flight before march extreme. Earlier in the program, they sit down and analyze the flight. They know it is a threeday mission. The primary purpose includes a in space, a meeting with a space vehicle and a spacewalk. The experts will devise problems that could occur, some simple, some quite challenging. They see these problems, feed them into a computer, and see what happens. Perhaps with glee. At any rate, the crew and the controller at the consul are given the problem. Both must respond correctly. About 90 problems will be run for the gemini eight mission. On the schedule, today two days for the agena vehicle, and two days for simulations. 11 days of problemsolving. Most probably, none of them will show up. But if they should, the crew and those who support the men, will be ready. Several days before gemini viii will leave, the uss boxer comes toward the primary zone where the mission will end. It begins training the complement of officers and men in recovery operations. The boxer now launches helicopters for search and retrieval of astronauts. Onboard, the commander of the western atlantic recovery forces, known as the task force. Two ships, six helicopters and six aircraft are assigned to the task force. All five manned flights to date have been recovered as planned. Still, 10 warships, 54 aircraft and other men will be deployed still, 10 more ships, 54 aircraft and other men will be deployed at different stations around the world for recovery. There are nine other plant planned areas. They are in the midpacific and the western pacific. In the western pacific, the uss leonard, a destroyer, begins exercises on the retrieval of a model of the spacecraft. The mission will cover three landing areas within zone three. It will be backed up by aircraft from japan. The chief difference between the primary area where the boxer is stationed in another area is the cover handsomeness of coverage. The number of aircraft, ships and Recovery Specialists at that station. In addition, a special launch abort area covers the land mass and immediate offshore areas. In case of an ejected keyboard abort. There could be more extreme contingencies. The emergency might be such that the spacecraft could not land in a planned landing area. In a dire emergency, a manned a pilot might have to fire the rocket and come back down. The world is 70 water and 30 land. The odds are strongly weighted towards a water landing. They will have to locate the spacecraft in emergency. Any commercial shipping might be called for assistance to pick of astronauts. Freighters, tankers, any ship with heavy equipment could take the spacecraft aboard. If the crew comes down overland, they would use the ejection seats, and the land by parachute. Astronauts have not only a complete survival kit to sustain them, but they are trained to live off the land, even deserts and jungle. Whether it comes down over water or land, the recovery is planned and coordinated by specialists. They set of requirements for the mission and work closely with the department of defense. The dod commits the necessary ships and aircraft to do the job. The dod manager for the manned spacecraft support directs worldwide recovery forces. He is in contact with two Main Elements under command, at cape kennedy and in hawaii. The red telephone puts him in direct contact with the highest levels of the department of defense. Although this, the red telephone and contingency off of the pacific seems remote on the 16th of march. The crew is entering the spacecraft for what has every sign of being a normal flight. At the same time, on the launch complex, the account is only 25 minutes from liftoff. The Gemini Mission is based on a successful orbit of the target vehicle. The edging account agena count has no holds. It ignites. [rockets] atlas has three main issue engines, to our booster engines. The booster engines cut off first, two minutes into the flight. The sustainer engine takes over and propels the agena to an altitude of 654,000 feet. Two small engines on the atlas continue to adjust it properly in the later phases of launch. They will cut off after five minutes of liftoff. The propulsion system inserts the target vehicle into orbit. Today, the flight plan calls for a circular orbit. Something close to that would be acceptable. The system can be adjusted for orbit. As the final figures come up, no inflight burns will be needed. They have hit the circular orbit. This is a good beginning for any flight. The news is given to the crew by the spacecraft communicator. The pilot comes back with, just what the doctor ordered. A flight director calls for the launch at 1140 11 40 a. M. Offshore, the recovery forces are fully deployed and now can only wait, like the rest of us. Stage two valves coming open. 20 seconds. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ignition. Liftoff. Roger. [rockets] [indiscernible] roger. Good liftoff. Roger, pitch program. The liftoff came as the flight director had requested my 11 40 a. M. And 59 seconds. Gemini viii goes into the clouds high above cape kennedy. As the spacecraft comes out of the clouds, a plane fix it up for a close look to see what it is like to fly on top of the booster. 50 seconds, looking good. After 50 seconds, they release restraints required for seat rejection ejection. Gemini viii was inserted into an orbit of 86 nautical miles. Very close to the plan values by of 86 by 145 not all miles nautical miles. Roger, we have ignition. Roger, staging. [indiscernible] copy that. The launch site is the first contingency that has passed successfully. A trained team has been released and returned to other duties. With two good orbits, the target vehicle and spacecraft, the gemini had a head start with docking. The maneuvers will be essentially the same as those performed by gemini six. So fast does the face Space Program accelerate, that this was the point in december, but three months later it is much and the rendezvous seems routine. Everybody is focused more on docking, everybody except those who fly the mission. Then you take things stepbystep. This is gemini control, houston. Two minutes ago, Neil Armstrong called over and he was not able he was able to confirm that radar lock had been established. Roger. Do you have solid radar lock . Over. [indiscernible] we will give you a current range. Roger. Sounds good. We indicate 158 mile range and an elevation of 4 degrees. After the lock on, the crew will circlulize the orbit. In the meantime, the ground does not sit still waiting for something to happen. Recovery forces are constantly shifting in response to the orbit of the spacecraft, changing according to a plan. The uss cochran, a destroyer in the pacific, takes position for a recovery. This is a recovery in zone four. Zone three will be the planned landing zone for the next three revolutions. For 5, 6 and seven. After that, do my will gemini viii will not be over a planned area again into the 10th revolution. If an emergency occurs in the eighth or ninth revolution from the spacecraft will land in a contingency area. They will be supported by variable commercial shipping. Right now, much of this seems academic. The crew has other business. Ok, we have a visual on the edging up. Agena. Houston, this is gemini viii, we are stationed at about 150 feet. Way to go, partner. Doing good. Look at that sucker. That is beautiful. I see everything. That is great. Man, that is really great. The first thing we really have to do, 650710. It looks like at a nominal time, they will give you the time. Now check the status. I bet those lockheed guys are jumping up and down. We are looking at the left or command pilot window as the station keeping exercise with agena. Gemini viii had no difficulty maneuvering in the vicinity of the agena. Flight was at six frames per second. After station keeping for about 35 minutes. Strachan begins to move closer Neil Armstrong begins moving closer to agena. They are moving at about 17,000 miles per hour. This is the end of the agena. The command pilot makes an approach by using thrust increases. The maximum velocity difference between the two vehicles at docking will be about 1 foot per second. When the command pilot is about two feet from the agena, he will pause until he gets a go. The double check has been completed. Ok. We are solid, looking good on the ground. Go ahead and the doc. We will hold off until he gets it. Go ahead. Roger. [indiscernible] we are docked. That was it. Two vehicles docked for the first time in space. Shortly after docking, the crew is surprised when the spacecraft communicator checks in. Roger, i read you loud and clear. I have information for you. Standby. What kind of information . If you run into trouble and the control system of the agena goes wild, send in command 400 and take control. Copy that . We understand. It was a routine check. You punch 400 into the computer and this will automatically turn off the control system of the agena. If the problem is the agena, that will end it. Minutes later, gemini viii passes out of communications range. The crew was prepared to begin a series of exercises. Preparing to begin a series of exercises. It had left 5three and was going to the recovery zone. Since we were in the fifth revolution, the retro fire experts were updating their times. These are usually planned for six revolutions ahead and stored in computers. It was about this time that jim level lovell for seven hours after liftoff, and excessive roll motion occurred. The crew punched out 400, but the trouble was not the agena. Unable to find an immediate answer, armstrong undocked. The role continued to build, reaching about one revolution per second. Struggling to regain control, mr. Armstrong was forced to fire reentry thrusters and reassert control over the spacecraft. Neither crew man experienced loss of orientation. The gemini never approached critical strain. Once the reentry thrusters are fired, there is a possibility of fuel leaking. This fuel is essential for reentry. The final action rested squarely on the shoulders of this man, the director. A decision came quickly. Fuel readings were too low. Abort. That was the first decision. Where do we recover . A stream of facts flow into the consul. Exact position, whether weather, available daylight, and to the whereabouts of the uss mason. A destroyer which had practiced picking up a model of the gemini in the pacific. Millions of people suddenly learned it existed. With geminis to believe stabilized, there were several advantages to delaying reentry. The officer would have an exact reading on the times and the crew could prefer prepare for reentry. And aircraft could be at station for splashdown. This is the way that it would be. The nasa coordinator leans to the consul, we want to recover in 73. The manager putt pushes the button and he is in contact with hawaii. Hawaii alerts the captain. They head for 73 at 30 knots. Search aircraft scandal from japan. As gemini begins its final revolution, whether it is weather is excellent in the splashdown area. The crew is busy. The pilot has only time for this brief reflection. I would like to argue about going home, but i do not know how we can. That was all. Gemini viii goes past the nearby island. Retro fire will being your nigeria will be near nigeria. They go through the atmosphere. This is the view that they will see for a long time, the family is. Himalayas. The pacific will look friendly and hospitable. Waiting for gemini viii our rescue aircraft, ready to pick up a signal from the spacecraft. Two aircrafts from japan are added to the team. When gemini viii is only three miles away, they catch sight of it. After that, landing is almost routine and it lands within two miles of the predictive point. Predicted point. The first swimmer in the water is a veteran and a good man to have on your side. He is followed by two other rescue swimmers. It was early afternoon, but at 11 00 at night where the u. S. Boxer uss boxer was waiting. They reached the area and the crew and the spacecraft are both in good shape. Within 72 hours, scientists would pin down the source of trouble, is a short circuit in the wiring had caused a thruster to fire. A master switch has now been added to the gemini. The crew can throw the switch and cut off power to the thrusters in any future flights. Once the difficulty was corrected, we could take time to realize that the gemini had brought us closer to lunar exploration, by demonstrating the First Successful dock in space. Gemini viii also gave many of us are first look at men like the first rescue swimmers. As well as the captain and crew of the mason. Men who are there on remote stations, doing their duty and doing it well. It was these men who sided gemini viii and took the crew and spacecraft safely aboard. At that point, we learned that long months of training and simulation between nasa and the department of defense was found. Sound. The control room is empty but it will fill up again as simulations begin for the next flight. We had achieved our first docking in space, her first the first orbital aboard. Gemini viii came through with flying colors. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] joined American History tv on cspan three four live, all day coverage of a lincoln symposium from ford theater. Featured speakers include sidney blumenthal, author of a selfmade man. Lincoln and emancipation. Lastiter of lincoln speech. Cup terry alford. And live coverage saturday from 9 00 a. M. Until 5 00 p. M. Eastern. Roth with that power comes greater responsibility, and the idea you have an individual sitting on the court, years,red, for 30, 35 does not pass the smell test when it comes to a modern democracy. Sunday night on q a, gabe roth talks about changes you would like to see at the supreme court, including opening up oral arguments to cameras, imposing term limits, and requiring justices to it here to the same code of ethics other justices follow. Mr. Roth all americans are aware of the third branch of government, and in the last 10, 15 years, it has become so powerful. Voting, marriage, health care, immigration, womens rights, pregnancy discrimination i could go on and on. These issues, 20, 30 years ago, congress and the executive branch would compromise and put together a deal. The buck stops at the supreme in a way that is unprecedented, and the least we can do is expect them to comport with modern accountability. On the at a 00 eastern on day. s thank you q a on book tv we show you a house that was the turning point for scott and zelda. The idea was to regroup. It was a landing pad. Stage, andgrouping, it was not the sort of place where youre going to find scott and zelda engaging in domestic activities, if you will. It was the sort of place where they were going to be planning their next move. On American History tv what happens in the 1958 campaign, wallace does try to reach this racial moderate, and really try to campaign for the alabama,workingclass progressive improvement, and gets the support of the naacp in his initial campaign. Unfortunately, he loses by a significant margin to john patterson, and he completely is devastated by this loss. Wallace all he wants to be as governor, and he is really upset by this loss, and he considers it a failing. Him what thele ask take away from the 1958 campaign is he says i try to talk about progressive improvements, good roads and good schools, and no one would listen, but when i started talking about segregation, everybody stopped and started listening to me. Watch the cspan cities tour today at noon eastern on cspan afternoon and sunday on American History tv on cspan3. Named a finalist in the International Competition to design the world war one memorial in washington, d. C. To fully realize his vision initially conceived at a make shift desk he invited veteran classical sculptur to join him. It produced the winning entry called the weight of sacrifice