lot of engineers and photographers getting sick was not pleasant. It caused me to get a very queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Finally it got so bad that if someone came up behind me on the ground and whispered âKC-135â in my ear, my stomach would do a double back flip with a reverse twist.
A second torture chamber, worse than the KC-135, was the centrifuge. It was used to simulate the acceleration our bodies would feel during launch and reentry. Unlike weightlessness, it is easy to simulate the opposite condition, where the body âweighsâ many times more than normal. The centrifuge, which we nicknamed the âWheel,â does it simply by swinging you around in a circle. The
faster you turn, the greater the centrifugal force pushing you into your seat, and the heavier you feel. Our centrifuge had a huge electric motor and a fifty-foot arm with a simulated spacecraft on its end. Built into a circular room, and controlled by a computer, the arm could be made to turn at whatever speed was necessary to imitate the loads we would experience under various flight conditions. The worst case was the deceleration an astronaut would feel if his rocket engine quit before he reached orbit, causing him to plunge back down into the atmosphere. We practiced, for brief instants, up to 15 Gs, which means that my 165-pound body would be pressed up against its seat with a force 15 times that of its weight, or a total of 2,475 poundsâover one ton! Fifteen Gs is not pleasant. In fact, I start feeling uncomfortable at about 8 Gs, with a pain developing in the center of my chest. At above 10 Gs, I have difficulty breathing. The problem is that it is easy to exhale, and to empty the lungs, but almost impossible to move the chest muscles to reinflate them. A new breathing technique is required, one in which the astronaut pants like a dog, and takes many short quick breaths âoff the topâ of his lungs, and never allows them to become completely deflated. Another problem at high Gs is that your vision is affected, and darkness closes in from the edges toward the center of your field of view. Itâs called tunnel vision because, before you black out completely, for a while you seem to be looking down a tunnel and can see only those objects that are directly in front of you. Sometimes the forces on your body at high Gs cause tiny blood vessels to rupture, usually in your eyes, so the doctors examine you carefully after a ride on the âWheel.â You feel the centrifuge
for hours after you get off it, in a way that is totally unexpected: if you turn your head suddenly to the side, you feel quite dizzy. You also feel tired whether you turn your head or not. All in all, riding the âWheelâ is not a pleasant way to spend your days. I remember one time there was a competition between three different types of pressure suit, to see which one would be selected for the Apollo flights. All three were made to my dimensions, which meant that I was the only one who could test them on the KC-135 and the âWheel.â Lucky me!
6
I n June 1965 I really did get lucky. I was the first of our group of fourteen to be assigned to a flight crew. It was only a backup crew, which meant that I wouldnât get to fly unless something happened to the prime crew, but I was really excited, nonetheless.
The flight was Gemini 7, and the prime crew were Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. The commander of the backup crew was Ed White, and I was to be his co-pilot. I had known Ed for many years, as we had been classmates at West Point. I also knew Frank Borman well, because he and I had sat at adjoining desks at the Test Pilot School. I had only known Jim Lovell for a year or so. Fortunately, I enjoyed being around all three of them, and they were a
good group with whom to work. Ed White was a very good athlete, and he liked to start the day by running a couple of miles and ending it by playing handball or squash for an
A second torture chamber, worse than the KC-135, was the centrifuge. It was used to simulate the acceleration our bodies would feel during launch and reentry. Unlike weightlessness, it is easy to simulate the opposite condition, where the body âweighsâ many times more than normal. The centrifuge, which we nicknamed the âWheel,â does it simply by swinging you around in a circle. The
faster you turn, the greater the centrifugal force pushing you into your seat, and the heavier you feel. Our centrifuge had a huge electric motor and a fifty-foot arm with a simulated spacecraft on its end. Built into a circular room, and controlled by a computer, the arm could be made to turn at whatever speed was necessary to imitate the loads we would experience under various flight conditions. The worst case was the deceleration an astronaut would feel if his rocket engine quit before he reached orbit, causing him to plunge back down into the atmosphere. We practiced, for brief instants, up to 15 Gs, which means that my 165-pound body would be pressed up against its seat with a force 15 times that of its weight, or a total of 2,475 poundsâover one ton! Fifteen Gs is not pleasant. In fact, I start feeling uncomfortable at about 8 Gs, with a pain developing in the center of my chest. At above 10 Gs, I have difficulty breathing. The problem is that it is easy to exhale, and to empty the lungs, but almost impossible to move the chest muscles to reinflate them. A new breathing technique is required, one in which the astronaut pants like a dog, and takes many short quick breaths âoff the topâ of his lungs, and never allows them to become completely deflated. Another problem at high Gs is that your vision is affected, and darkness closes in from the edges toward the center of your field of view. Itâs called tunnel vision because, before you black out completely, for a while you seem to be looking down a tunnel and can see only those objects that are directly in front of you. Sometimes the forces on your body at high Gs cause tiny blood vessels to rupture, usually in your eyes, so the doctors examine you carefully after a ride on the âWheel.â You feel the centrifuge
for hours after you get off it, in a way that is totally unexpected: if you turn your head suddenly to the side, you feel quite dizzy. You also feel tired whether you turn your head or not. All in all, riding the âWheelâ is not a pleasant way to spend your days. I remember one time there was a competition between three different types of pressure suit, to see which one would be selected for the Apollo flights. All three were made to my dimensions, which meant that I was the only one who could test them on the KC-135 and the âWheel.â Lucky me!
6
I n June 1965 I really did get lucky. I was the first of our group of fourteen to be assigned to a flight crew. It was only a backup crew, which meant that I wouldnât get to fly unless something happened to the prime crew, but I was really excited, nonetheless.
The flight was Gemini 7, and the prime crew were Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. The commander of the backup crew was Ed White, and I was to be his co-pilot. I had known Ed for many years, as we had been classmates at West Point. I also knew Frank Borman well, because he and I had sat at adjoining desks at the Test Pilot School. I had only known Jim Lovell for a year or so. Fortunately, I enjoyed being around all three of them, and they were a
good group with whom to work. Ed White was a very good athlete, and he liked to start the day by running a couple of miles and ending it by playing handball or squash for an
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