| Mission Insignia | |
|---|---|
| Mission Statistics | |
| Mission: | Gemini 3 |
| Callsign: | Molly Brown |
| Launch: | March 23, 1965 14:24:00.064 UTC Cape Canaveral LC19 |
| Landing: | March 23, 1965 19:16:31 UTC 22° 26' N 70° 51' W |
| Duration: | 4 hours 52 min, 31 seconds |
| Orbits: | 3 |
| Distance Traveled: | 128,748 kilometres |
Crew
The crew for the mission were Virgil Grissom and John Young. Grissom had flown once before on the second sub-orbital Mercury flight. At the end of the 15 minute flight, the spacecraft hatch had blown prematurally and the spacecraft sunk. Some blamed the incident on Grissom though it was shown that he couldn't have accidentally activated the explosive bolts. This time he decided to use the callsign 'Molly Brown', after the musical 'The Unsinkable Molly Brown'.
Objectives
This was the first manned flight of the Gemini spacecraft and as such was very much a test flight. The mission objectives centres around testing the systems and making sure that everything worked the way that it was meant to. For the first time there was two people on an American spacecraft, the first orbital change would occur, and it would be the first manned reentry where the spacecraft could produce lift to change its touchdown point.
Flight
The only major incident during the orbital phase was a contraband corned beef sandwich that Young had snuck on board. The crew each took a couple of bites from it before restowing it due to the crumbs that it released. These could have recked havoc with the electronics on board, so the crew were reprimanded when they returned to Earth and other crews warned not to pull the same types of stunts.
They made their first orbit change a hour and a half into the flight. The burn lasted 75 seconds and moved them from a 122 by 175 kilometer orbit to a nearly circular one with a drop in speed of 15 metres per second. The second burn was 45 minutes later when the orbital inclination was changed by one-fiftieth of a degree. The last burn came during the third orbit when the perigee was lowered to 72 kilometres. This meant that even if the retrorockets failed to fire they would still reenter.
However, they did fire properly. The reentry was as expected with the crew commenting that even the colours were identical to the ground simulations. The only problem came when they realised that they were more than 69 kilometres off course. Although the Gemini was supposed to be able to produce enough lift to overcome this deviation, it turned out that it could produce less than the wind tunnel had predicted. In the end it landed 84 kilometres short of the intended splashdown point.
When the capsule shifted from a vertical to horizontal position under the parachutes, the change was so sudden that Grissom cracked his faceplate on the control panel in front of him. When he realised that they were so far away from the recovery craft he decided to stay in the spacecraft, not wanting to open the hatch. As such the crew spent an uncomfortable half an hour in a spacecraft not really designed to be a boat.
Insignia
The mission insignia was not a true one like that from Gemini 5 onwards. It was a logo designed and minted as a coin. The crew carried a number of them into space to give to their families and friends.Capsule Location
The capsule is on display at the Grissom Memorial, Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell, Indiana.External links
Previous Mission:
Manned: Mercury 9
Unmanned: Gemini 2Gemini
Next Mission:
Gemini 4