Each week, American History tvs reel america brings your archival films that help tell the story of the 20th century. 50 years ago on march 16th, 1956, gemini 8 blasted off with Neil Armstrong and david scott on board. It was the sixth manned mission and one of the primary objectives was to rendezvous and dock with the gina spacecraft. This is a 25 minute nasa film, telling the story of a first docking with another aircraft in space and what caused it to violently tumble in space. The astronauts were forced to abort the mission and return to earth approximately ten hours after blastoff. Ignition. Liftoff. Liftoff. Good flight. How is it looking . Low, no problem. Roger, how about you. Go for stage. Staging. Should that thrust look . That is looking a little high. Roger. Status check. Booster. Go. Retro. Go. Guidance. Guidance, you go . Stand by. Surgeon. Go. Econ. Go. Guidance . Roger, cap come, were go. Early shutdown. We have a shut down. Flight not only had cutoff, stand by. Standing by. 7295. 72 were no good. Roger. Cap come, no go. Cap come, no go. No go. No go. Got a time here . Area charlie. Nine plus 20. Roger. Were going. Firing in 9 plus 20. Some weather and access times. No swells. And your call sign rescue one, the destroyer, is the low. Five, four, three, two, one. Fire one. Rocket two. This was not an actual Gemini Mission. Nobody left the ground. Gemini did not abort. We edited together an actual launch. The flight was simulated from an adjacent room in the Mission ControlCenter Houston and like many other things in the space age, flight simulation is done by computers. The primary and backup crew for gemini 8 will undergo 11 days of such simulated flights before launch day, march 16th. Early in the program, experts sit down and analyze the flight. They know it is a threeday mission. Its primary purpose includes rendezvous in space with a target vehicle, the first docking in space, and a two hour space walk by pilot david scott. The experts devised problems that could occur. Some simple, some quite challenging. They need these problems into a computer and sit back and see what happens. At any rate, the crew in the simulator and the controller at the console are given the problem. Both must respond correctly. About 90 problems will be run for the mission. On the schedule are two days devoted to the aegeania target vehicle. Four days devoted to Network Simulations and two days scheduled for running reentry simulations. Including emergency reentries. 11 days of problem solving. Most probably none of them with would turn up during the flight. If one should, the crew and the 5,000 people on the Ground Network that support the two men would be ready. The uss boxer steams toward the primary recovery zone where the mission will normally end. It begins training its complement of officers and men in recovery operations, instead of launching amphibious strike missions, the boxer launches helicopters for search and retrieval of astronauts. On board, the recovery forces known as task force 140. 3. Two ships, six helicopters and six aircraft are assigned to this task force. All five flights to date have been recovered as planned in the primary zone. Still, ten more ships, 54 aircraft, and 5,000 additional men will be deployed at different stations around the world for recovery. There are nine other planned landing areas lined within the three major zones of the eastern atlantic. The midpacific. And the western pacific. In the western pacific, a destroyer begins exercises on the retrieval of a border plate model. The mason will cover three landing areas within zone three. It will be backed up by aircraft from okinawa and japan. The chief distance where the boxer is stationed and a secondary area such as this is the comprehensiveness of coverage. The number of aircraft, ships and Recovery Specialists on station. In addition, a special launch aboard area covers the landmass and offshore areas at cape kennedy. Recovery teams go up before the astronauts enter the spacecraft in case of an ejected aboard from the launchpad or shortly after liftoff. There could be more extreme contingencies. The emergency might be such that a spacecraft could not land in a planned landing area. In a dire emergency, the command pilot might have to fire the retro rockets and come down, the world is 70 water and 30 land. The odds strongly weighted toward a water landing. Any commercial shipping in the area might then be called for assistance to pick up the astronauts. Craters, oilers, tankers, any ship with heavy hoist equipment could take the spacecraft aboard. If the crew comes down over land, they would use the ejection seats. Leave the spacecraft and land by parachute. Astronauts have not only a complete survival kit to sustain them, but theyre trained to live off the land, even desert and jungle. Whether gemny comes down over water or land, recovery is planned and coordinated by a nation nasa team of specialists. They work closely with the department of defense. Dod commits the necessary ships and aircraft to do the job. The dod manager for manned spacecraft support directs worldwide recovery forces, in contact with two Main Elements under his command. The atlantic recovery control center, cape kennedy, and the Pacific Recovery control center, hawaii. The red telephone puts him into direct contact with the highest levels of the department of defense. But all of this, the red telephone and the contingency aircraft off the South Pacific seems remote on the 16th of march. The crew is entering their spacecraft for what has every sign of being a normal flight. At the same time, on Launch Complex 14, the account is only 25 minutes from liftoff. The Gemini Mission is largely based on a successful orbit of the target vehicle. The account has no holes, rite on the nose at 10 00 eastern standard time, the launch vehicle ignites. Atlas has three main propulsion engines which ignite liftoff, two are booster engines and one is a sustainer engine. The booster engines cut off first, some two minutes and 40 seconds into the flight. The sustainer engine then takes over and propels the aegeania to an altitude of 64,190 feet. Two small burning engines on the atlas continue to position the aegeania properly in later phases of the launch. The propulsion system inserts the target vehicle into a circular orbit. Today, the flight plan calls for a circular orbit of 661 nautical miles. Something close to that would be acceptable. The aegeania propulsion system can be started from the ground and a burn completed to change the orbit. As the final figures come up to the flight dynamics officer, no inflight burns will be needed. Aegeania has hit the plan circular orbit of 161 nautical miles. This is a good beginning for any rendezvous flight. The news is given the crew by the spacecraft communicator. Pilot scott comes back with just what the doctor ordered. The flight director now calls for launch of gemini 8. Off shore the launch site recovery forces are fully deployed. They now can only wait like the rest of us. Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Ignition. Lift off. Good liftoff. The liftoff came as flight director hodge had requested. 11 40 5. Gemini 8 goes into the clouds high above cape kennedy. As the spacecraft comes out of the clouds an aerial chase plane picks it up for a close look at what it is like to ride as a spacecraft crew on top of the booster. Mark 50 seconds, looking good. After 50 seconds, the crew releases the restraints which are required for seat ejection. Gemini 8 was inserted into an orbit of 86 nautical miles by 146 nautical miles. Very close to the planned values of 86 by 145 nautical miles. We have ignition. Roger staging. The launch site aboard is the first contingency that passed successfully. A carefully trained team has been released and returns to other duties. With two good orbits, target vehicle and spacecraft gemini 8 had a head start on rendezvous and docking. The maneuvers for rendezvous would be essentially the same as those performed by gemini 6. So fast does the Space Program accelerate that rendezvous was the primary objective of gemini 6 in december, but three months later, it is march and rendezvous almost seems routine. Everyone is focused more on docking, everyone except those who fly the mission. Then you take things step by step. This is gemny control houston. About two minutes ago, Neil Armstrong called in over to manner reed and he was able to confirm at that time that radar lock had been established. Roger, do you have solid radar lock on with the aegeania . Over. We have radar lock. Roger, thank you. Sounds good. 158 mile range in elevation of about four degrees. After radar lock on, the crew will circularize the orbit inside that of the target vehicle. Meantime, the ground does not sit still, idly waiting for something to happen. Recovery forces are constantly shifting in response to the orbit of the spacecraft, changing station according to a detailed recovery plan. The uss cochran, a destroyer in the midpacific, takes position for a 44 recovery that is recovery in the fourth revolution in zone four. Zone three will be the planned landing zone for the next three revolutions, for five, six and seven. After that, gemini 8 will not be over a planned landing area again until the tenth revolution and then passes over the eastern atlantic zone. If an emergency occurs in the eighth or ninth revolution, the spacecraft will land in a contingency area, recovery is supported there by aircraft and available commercial shipping. But right now, much of this seems academic. The crew has other business. Okay, we got a visual on the aegeania at 76. Roger, i understand visual, aegeania, 76 miles. Houston this is gemini 8. About 150 feet. Way to go. Youve done a good job. Look at that. Thats beautiful. I see everything on that. Thats great. Man, that is really slick. First thing we really have to do, 650 to 710, and theyre giving us the loaded yaw maneuver. Theyll give you the time. Now, check your status display. How about those lockheed guys are just jumping up and down. It is on. Yeah. Okay. We are looking at the left or command pilots window as the station keeping exercise begins. Gemini 8 had no difficulty in maneuvering. The on board film was at six str frames per second and projected at four times that speed. After station keeping for 45 minutes, the command pilot armstrong begins to move in closer, preparing his final docking approach. Both vehicles are traveling at approximately 17,500 miles per hour. Were looking at the target docking adapter end of the aegeania. The command pilot makes a docking approach by applying very small thrust increases to gemini 8. The maximum velocity difference between the two vehicles at d sg will be one foot per second. When the command pilot is about two feet from the aegeania, we will pause until he gets a go. The doublecheck has been completed. Okay. Gemini 8, we have cam solid, looking good on the ground, go ahead. Were going to hold off until he does get docked. Okay. Go ahead with your memory compare. Roger. Let us know what you get out of that. Flight, we are down. That was it. Two vehicles docked for the first time in space. Shortly after docking, the crew was slightly surprised when jim lovell, the spacecraft communicato communicator, checked in with this caution. Read you loud and clear, i have some information for you. Ready to copy. Stand by. What kind of information is it . If you run into trouble, and the control system of the aegeania goes wild, send in command 400 to turn it off and take control with the spacecraft. Did you copy that . We understand. It was a routine check. You punch 400 into the on board computer. This automatically turns off the attitude control system of the aegeania. If the problem is aegeania control, that ends it. Minutes the crew was preparing for a docking exercise. And the it had left 53, was headed for a 63 recovery zone. Since we were in the fifth revolution, the retro fire experts were routinely updating their retro fire times. These are usually planned for six revolutions ahead and stored in the onboard computer. It was about this time that jim lovell almost qualified as space prophet of the year. For seven hours after liftoff and 27 minutes of successful docking. A yaw motion occurred. The crew jumped up 400, but the trouble was not in the aegeana. Mr. Armstrong undocked. The roll rate built up. Reaching one revolution per second. Struggling to regain control, mr. Armstrong was forced to fire the reentry thrusters and gradually reasserted control over the spacecraft. Neither crewmate experienced any loss of orientation, gemini never approached critical structural strain. Once the reentry thrusters are fired, theres the possibility of fuel leakage in orbit. Leaking of fuel essential for reentry. The flight had been highly successful through 27 minutes of docking, but final action rests squarely on the shoulders of this man, the flight director. A decision came quickly. Fuel readings were too low. Abort. That was the first decision. Others followed. Where do we recover . A stream of facts flow into flight director hodges console. Exact orbital position, weather in the pacific. Available daylight if recovery zones. And the whereabouts of the uss mason. A destroyer which had repetitiously practiced picking up a boilerplate of the gemini in the waters of the pacific came into its own. Millions of people suddenly learned that it existed. With gemini stabilized in flight, there were several advantages to delaying reentry for another orbit. The retro fire officer would have an exact reading on retro fire times and the crew could prepare for reentry, an aircraft could be on station at splashdown. This is the way it would be. The nasa coordinator leans over toward the d. O. D. Console. We want to recover in 73. The d. O. D. Manager immediately punches the button which puts him in contact with Pacific Recovery control hawaii. Hawaii alerts the captain of the mason. He swings around, heads for 73, making 30 knots. Search aircraft scramble from okinawa. They will be over the predicted landing point ten minutes before the spacecraft splashes down. As gemini 8 begins its seventh and final revolution, weather is excellent in the splashdown area. The crew is busy, the command pilot has time for only this brief reflection. Id like to argue with them about going home, but i dont know how we can. That was all. Gemini 8 sweeps past ascension island. Retro fire will come over nigeria. Airtoground communications are broken but the rockets fire on the nose. The crew begins the descent through atmosphere. This is e view they will see for a long time. After these forbidding mountains, the sweep of the pacific will look friendly and hospitable. Waiting for gemini 8 are rescue aircraft circling in the landing area, ready to pick up any electronic signal from the spacecraft. Two aircraft from okinawa were originally assigned here, but five others were alerted and added to the recovery team. When gemini 8 is only three miles away. A c54 catches sight of it on the main landing parachute. After that, landing is almost routine and gemini 8 landed within two miles of the predicted impact point. The first pararescue swimmer in the water is Airman First Class neale. Airman neale is a veteran of rescue work, a good man to have on your side. Hes followed by two other rescue swimmers. It was early afternoon in the pacific. Almost 11 00 at night in the atlantic where the uss boxer had waited. The mason three hours away at splashdown. Reached the area at 3 17 local time. Crew and spacecraft both in good shape were soon aboard. Within 72 hours, nasa scientists would pin down the source of trouble. A shortcircuit in the wiring of the number 8 yaw thruster had caused it to fire erratically. The possibility of this failure recurring is slight. But a master switch has been added to the gemini spacecraft. The crew can throw the switch and cut off all power to the attitude thrusters in any future flight. Once the difficulty was corrected, we could take time out to realize that gemini 8 had brought us closer to Lunar Exploration by demonstrating the First Successful dock in space. Gemini 8 also gave many of us our first look at men like the three young rescue swimmers, airman neale and moore and staff certainliant hewi sergeant hewitt. Men there in every flight on remote stations, doing their duty and doing it well. It was these men who sighted gemini 8 on the parachute and took the crew and spacecraft safely aboard the mason. At this point we knew that the long months of training and the many simulations and the close interplay between nasa and the department of defense were sound. The mission has ended. The control room is empty. But it will soon fill up again as simulations begin for the next flight. We had achieved our first docking in space. We experienced our first orbital abort. In both cases gemini 8 came through with flying colors. On American History tv on cspan 3 this fourth of july weekend, this evening beginning at 6 00 p. M. Eastern, American History tv is live at the Smithsonians National air and space museum for its 40th anniversary. Well tour the museum and see one of a kind artifacts and speak with the museums director and talk with the Museum Curator and valerie neal, chairman of the space history department. And you can join the conversation, well take your phone calls, emails and tweets. Saturday night at 8 00 on lectures in history. Julia ward howe increasingly focused on her position as a mother. Which is of course whats driving her position for suffrage. Her position as to mother to say that women are different from men. Women can do Society Better than men have done. Boston College ProfessorHeather Coxrichardson on the new roles women assumed in the workforce and politics, during the late 19th century and the growth of political organizations run by women that focused on issues like prohibition and womens suffrage. The road to the white house rewind. The 1968 democratic and Republican National conventions. Resolute, without being bellico bellicose, strong without being arrogant, thats the kind of an america that will help build the peace of this world. The time has come, for us to leave the valley of despair and climb the mounta