Far-Out Date

The majestic Titan II rocket lifted off precisely on schedule, hurling Gemini 7 toward a new chapter in space exploration. Five minutes after Lieut. Colonel Frank Borman and Commander James Lovell Jr. took off, a ground controller exclaimed: "You're right down the slot!" Command Pilot Borman radioed back: "That's the best thing I've heard."

Longest & Heaviest. As they set off for a planned 14-day, 206-orbit flight--longer by six days and 86 revolutions than any previous mission--they could expect better news yet. If all goes well, by the time Borman and Lovell splash down on Dec. 18, they will have been in the air for as long as the longest estimated Apollo mission to the moon will take. They will have flown the heaviest (more than four tons) Gemini capsule yet, and undergone the most extensive in-flight medical tests. (Borman had two spots shaved on his head and depilatory rubbed in to accommodate electroencephalograph sensors with which his brain waves were to be monitored.) The Gemini 7 crew will be the first to fly in their long underwear without benefit of space suits. A successful rendezvous to within inches of another Gemini craft 185 mi. from earth, the most spectacular phase of the mission, would be the biggest first of all.

Historic as it was, it was probably the least-watched lift-off yet. Millions of Americans were outdoors on a bright Saturday afternoon, driving in the country or Christmas shopping. Millions who stayed in were glued to football games on TV. They missed a fascinating launch. Rain threatened to scrub the mission until 31 hours before blastoff. A minor pressure loss in a fuel cell soon after the capsule achieved orbit was quickly remedied by switching pressure from the breathing oxygen tank to the fuel-cell oxygen tank. And in the first minutes of Gemini 7's flight, Borman and Lovell, both 37 and both making their first space journeys, succeeded in a drill that had never worked before. Guided by their own vision, they maneuvered their capsule to fly in formation with the detached second phase of the booster.

Quick Change. That experience may seem tame compared with the planned rendezvous with Gemini 6, which had been scheduled to go up Oct. 25. Gemini 6, programmed to hook up with an unmanned vehicle, was scrubbed after the latter blew up. The cancellation allowed Gemini 7 to be moved up from its scheduled launch in late December, and gave National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials the opportunity to launch 6 and 7 nine days apart in an attempt to achieve the first meeting of manned craft in space. The challenge was to compress the normal launch preparation time so that Gemini 6 could go up while Gemini 7 was still in orbit.

The normal preparation cycle is 60 days. There was a chance to reduce this to nine days because Gemini 6 had been kept in a high state of readiness. One of the big questions was whether Launch Complex 19--the only pad at Cape Kennedy capable of handling the Gemini--would be so damaged by Gemini 7's blast-off that Gemini 6 could not be emplaced soon enough. But damage to the launch site was "minimal." Crews began moving the Gemini 6 booster from its hangar to the launch pad 45 minutes after Gemini 7 lifted off. This week engineers will give Gemini 6 its final inspection and primping for the big date early next week.

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