hour, followed by a sauna bath. A sauna isnât really a bath at all; our sauna at Cape Kennedy was a small room with wooden walls, floor, and ceiling. We sat naked on wooden benches while an electric heater, buried under a pile of stones, heated the dry room to very high temperatures. After ten minutes or so at 170°, I would be red as a boiled lobster, but feeling goodârelaxed, drowsy, and healthy. Often I needed the sauna to relax, because I was giving my brain a real workout. Frank, Jim, and Ed knew the Gemini spacecraft well, having spent months studying it while I was doing my pressure-suit work. Therefore, I had a lot of catching up to do. Gemini 7 was due to launch in a few months, and I had to be ready to fly it in case anything happened to Jim Lovell.
Ed White was a big help in explaining things to me. He had already flown in space once, aboard Gemini 4, and was our nationâs first space walker. His EVA had lasted only twenty minutes or so, but he had enjoyed it so much he had hated to get back inside the spacecraft and close the hatch. When he did, he found the hatch was stuck, and he had a difficult time closing it. Luckily, Ed was probably the strongest of all the astronauts; I donât think some of the others would have been able to close it. But that was something we didnât have to worry about on Gemini 7; there would be no EVA on this flight. It was a long-duration flight, and Frank and Jim were scheduled to stay up for two weeks, provided no machinery broke, and provided they seemed to be continuing in good health.
The idea behind Gemini 7 was that it would take over a week for an Apollo spacecraft to fly to the moon and back. No one knew what might happen to human beings who were weightless for that length of time, but we did know that if they became sick on the moon, that was bad, since it would take them at least three days to get home again. So the thought was to test people for longer than an Apollo flight, but to do it in earth orbit, where they could return to the ground quickly if necessary. Hence fourteen days for Frank and Jim; I thought that was really a very long time to spend inside the tiny Gemini cockpit. They would have more room sitting in the front seat of a Volkswagen. And their cramped Gemini cockpit was all they had, they couldnât escape it. It was their office, study, living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, bath, and laboratoryâall in one. Frank and Jim would really get to know one another as they circled the earth more than two hundred times, eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom, workingâall within inches of each other.
I found that I couldnât sit in the Gemini simulator for more than three hours before my back got sore and my legs became numb. Then how in the ever loving, blue-eyed world were Frank and Jim supposed to stand it for two whole weeks? The secret was weightlessness. There would be no gravity to squash their bodies against their seats. Instead, they would float free, unless they chose to remain strapped down. Therefore, their backs shouldnât get sore or their legs numbâbut I still think that is an awfully long time for two people to be locked up inside such a small enclosure. I am five feet ten inches tall. Inside a Gemini, I can touch my head against the hatch and my feet against
the floorboards at the same time, without having to stretch. Sitting in the right seat, I can easily reach over and touch the left wall.
Weightlessness might be good for the body in terms of comfort, but it was thought to be harmful to the heart, muscles, and skeleton. The reason is that the body would not have to fight against gravity, and would therefore become weakened. For example, a lot of the heartâs work comes from the fact that gravity tends to cause the blood to pool in the lower part of the body, and the heart has to pump it âuphillâ against the pull of gravity. In space, with no gravity, there is no
Ed White was a big help in explaining things to me. He had already flown in space once, aboard Gemini 4, and was our nationâs first space walker. His EVA had lasted only twenty minutes or so, but he had enjoyed it so much he had hated to get back inside the spacecraft and close the hatch. When he did, he found the hatch was stuck, and he had a difficult time closing it. Luckily, Ed was probably the strongest of all the astronauts; I donât think some of the others would have been able to close it. But that was something we didnât have to worry about on Gemini 7; there would be no EVA on this flight. It was a long-duration flight, and Frank and Jim were scheduled to stay up for two weeks, provided no machinery broke, and provided they seemed to be continuing in good health.
The idea behind Gemini 7 was that it would take over a week for an Apollo spacecraft to fly to the moon and back. No one knew what might happen to human beings who were weightless for that length of time, but we did know that if they became sick on the moon, that was bad, since it would take them at least three days to get home again. So the thought was to test people for longer than an Apollo flight, but to do it in earth orbit, where they could return to the ground quickly if necessary. Hence fourteen days for Frank and Jim; I thought that was really a very long time to spend inside the tiny Gemini cockpit. They would have more room sitting in the front seat of a Volkswagen. And their cramped Gemini cockpit was all they had, they couldnât escape it. It was their office, study, living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, bath, and laboratoryâall in one. Frank and Jim would really get to know one another as they circled the earth more than two hundred times, eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom, workingâall within inches of each other.
I found that I couldnât sit in the Gemini simulator for more than three hours before my back got sore and my legs became numb. Then how in the ever loving, blue-eyed world were Frank and Jim supposed to stand it for two whole weeks? The secret was weightlessness. There would be no gravity to squash their bodies against their seats. Instead, they would float free, unless they chose to remain strapped down. Therefore, their backs shouldnât get sore or their legs numbâbut I still think that is an awfully long time for two people to be locked up inside such a small enclosure. I am five feet ten inches tall. Inside a Gemini, I can touch my head against the hatch and my feet against
the floorboards at the same time, without having to stretch. Sitting in the right seat, I can easily reach over and touch the left wall.
Weightlessness might be good for the body in terms of comfort, but it was thought to be harmful to the heart, muscles, and skeleton. The reason is that the body would not have to fight against gravity, and would therefore become weakened. For example, a lot of the heartâs work comes from the fact that gravity tends to cause the blood to pool in the lower part of the body, and the heart has to pump it âuphillâ against the pull of gravity. In space, with no gravity, there is no
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