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Title: Gemini 7: The NASA Mission Reports (Apogee Books Space Series) by Robert Godwin ISBN: 1-896522-82-3 Publisher: Collector's Guide Publishing Pub. Date: 01 March, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Lots of Gemini information
Comment: Within minutes of opening this book I learned several interesting things about Gemini. For instance: the pressure suits used on Gemini 7 were thin faboric with soft zipper attached helmets, these things really remind me of a windbreaker jacket! Since detailed Gemini information is hard to come by (Gemini being refered to as the forgotten manned program by many NASA engineers,) this book contains a wealth of knowledge.
Even if you don't collect the series, this is a great piece to add to the space library of the technically minded.
Rating: 5
Summary: Another Good Book in the Series
Comment: Over the past three and a half years, Robert Godwin and Apogee Books have compiled a variety of various NASA documents, press kits, crew interviews and the like, which recount the early days of the space race and specifically the Apollo missions. As is obvious from the title, this book does not focus on the Apollo moon mission, but on its predecessor, the Gemini missions and in particular Gemini 7. Gemini 7 was commanded by Frank Borman and with James Lovell (of Apollo 13 fame), as it is pilot and set an endurance record of 14 days, which was not surpassed until Skylab. This mission also included the rendezvous with Gemini 6, which was the first time that two vehicles met in orbit and was a precursor to the Apollo dockings in lunar orbit.
Unlike other volumes in the series that open with the usual NASA mission press kit, this book opens with some hard to find NASA Fact and Educational Sheets and two press releases. Even a cursory glance of these small introductory documents shows the competition between NASA and the Russian space program by indicating that with at the conclusion of the Gemini 7 flight, NASA's spacecraft time and total man-hours in space will surpass the Russians. The next section of the book contains the usual NASA press kit. The press kit contains information on the medical experiments that were to be conducted, some of which sounded quite unpleasant, the flight plan and a large section of docking maneuvers. I found it amusing that the press kit even contained information on the meal plans for each astronaut. Afterwards there is a brief, but extremely interesting report of the tracking network. The next sections contain the pre and post Mission Operations Directorate reports on the mission and some really nice line drawings of the vehicle. Basically, these are the press kits for internal NASA use. There are also some nice general information post-launch NASA fact sheets.
The crew debrief section, which is about 90 pages long, contains the Borman's and Lovell's comments and feelings about various parts of the mission and for the most part avoids the technical NASA-ese language. A good portion of the crew debriefing seems to be devoted to the medical experiments (and others as well), Earth observation, the Environmental Control System and general crew comfort. I'd expect this report to focus on these topics, since this 14-day mission was a test to determine if humans could endure the time it takes to get to the moon, explore and return to Earth. There is a lot discussion about the military's involvement in the project, more than I thought. I always find the crew debriefing quite enjoyable, because it is the closest thing to being there and you get two or three first had view points of various aspects of the mission.
I also found the CD as enjoyable as ever. It contains a nice 15 minute interview with Jim Lovell, a NASA film on the mission and over 400 photos of the Earth. While many of the photos are low resolution, there are still really good and high resolution photographs are outstanding.
Some general information that might be useful.
1) These reports are just scanned-in documents from previously released NASA press kits, etc., In order to preserve the spirit of the original reports, all typographical and grammatical errors have NOT been fixed.
2) Proceeds from the book goes to "The Watch" an asteroid impact research project of the Space Frontier Foundation. In other words, Apogee Books is making very little off the sale of US government produced books and documents.
3) Many people have asked why the post mission reports are not included. Since NASA has published about ten books with hundred of pages each (The NASA SP series). Specifically, "On the Shoulder of Titan," "Earth Photographs from Gemini VI through XII" and "Gemini Mid-Program Summary"
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