Terranauts

Just a short announcement today to wrap up season four of Terranauts - and yes, there will be a season five. I hope you have been enjoying the journey so far and that you'll join us in the fall as we make the transition from Gemini to Apollo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's episode is dedicated to all of those Terranauts who work in the back hallways and committee meeting rooms to make sure that there is support (and funding) for the various programs that get humans and their inventions a chance to get off the planet. I have worked with too many of these dedicated and talented individuals to mention them here by name. It can be a thankless job and one that is not always shown the respect it deserves. Doing it well requires as much talent, vision and creative problem solving as any scientific discovery or engineering breakthrough. Those that do it well benefit everyone around them, although it may not always be obvious. As Mac Evans points out in this episode - in a very real way there is a Canadian astronaut headed to the Moon in 2024 because of work that he and other talented and dedicated Terranauts did in 1994.To all who have done and continue to do that job - Thanks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When last we left Mac Evans (in an episode called The Flag Is A One) - he was in the mission control centre of the Canadian Telecommunications Satellite (CTS), having just rescued it from an untimely demise. This was important because CTS was the first modern telecommunications satellite and set the pattern for 20 years of satellite development. It was an important Canadian contribution to the humanity's journey off the planet.  Today we are going to talk about a different kind of last minute rescue. Today the rescue involves not just a satellite, but, in effect, a whole national space program. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

n today's episode we pick up the Gemini story with preparation for Gemini IX. That means that we have to talk about the tragic events surrounding the deaths of Elliot See and Charles Basset who were the first NASA astronauts to die in the line of duty. We'll also talk about how NASA and the Gemini program moved on past this tragedy and how the backup crew of Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan stepped up to See and Basset who had been the prime crew for Gemini IX. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we take a little bit more time to examine the events of Gemini VIII and what NASA learned from that experience. For one thing it learned the value of having test pilots as astronauts. But it also learned that having a team on the ground that could adapt to rapidly changing events on orbit was pretty important as well. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When we left first time Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott aboard Gemini VIII, they were just getting to orbit after what had been a pretty nominal launch of both their spacecraft and the Agena target vehicle that would rendezvous with. As we'll see, as the crew settled down to begin their rendezvous task the flight continued to go very well. Until it didn't... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gemini VIII was the first mission of 1966 and the first mission of the second half of Gemini's flight program. All of the big boxes had been checked, but that did not mean there was not a lot left to do. This week we talk about plans for Gemini VIII and we introduce a gentleman named Neil Armstrong who, at the time, was just a first time mission commander. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we get caught up on what had been going on with the Agena program. Remember those guys? They were the ones whose rocket had blown up after launch which had caused the Gemini VI mission to be aborted before it even got off the launch pad. While the rest of the Gemini program has been making history, they have been trying to figure out how to get back to flight status. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the calendar turned over from 1965 to 1966, the Gemini program was entering a new phase. Having completed half of it's flight program and having made progress on all of it's major objectives, the program was already thinking about wrapping up. In a sense though, Gemini was just a marker of its time. A lot of things were changing quickly as the world moved from 1966 at NASA, in the space program and even around the world. In this episode of Terranauts we take a moment to look at what the world looked like at the dawn of the year 1966. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the year 1965 ended, astronauts Jim Lovell and Frank Borman were proving that human beings could adapt to the environment of space, having lived there for almost two weeks before successfully returning home. Similarly, the Gemini program and NASA itself were also getting used to a new environment. An environment where they were focussed less on meeting the daily challenges of the Gemini program and more on how to use what they were learning there to help them get to the Moon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we finally get the party together on orbit as Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford in Gemini VIA complete the very first rendezvous with Jim Lovell and Frank Borman in Gemini VII.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When we left the Gemini program Jim Lovell and Frank Borman were just getting to orbit to begin a week long wait for Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford to join them in the first-ever on orbit rendezvous of two spacecraft. Today we will finally get the crew of Gemini VI to orbit... although it may take a little while longer than we thought. Today we will finally get the crew of Gemini VI to orbit... although it may take a little while longer than we thought. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Each January NASA pauses to honour NASA astronauts who lost their lives in cause of space exploration. This year, today, the 26th of January is the day NASA has chosen to mark this Day Of Remembrance. Once again this year, we, at Terranauts, also mark this day with a special episode to honour those flight crew that have died in humanity's quest to travel to and live off our planet. Once again this year, I am joined by Chris Hadfield. Joining us for a discussion of the Day of Remembrance and why it matters is Tim Braithwaite from the Canadian Space Agency liaison office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When we left the Gemini program, President Lyndon B. Johnson was just stepping up the microphone at his ranch in Texas to explain how NASA was going to respond to the failure of Gemini 6 barely 72 hours previously. Instead of stepping back and contemplating the big pile of lemons that life had just handed them, NASA was about to make pitcher of pretty impressive lemonade by attempting something they, and humanity, had never done before. Let's pick up the story... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was the 25th of October, 1965. And Houston had a problem. And by that I mean that Gene Kranz and the flight control team in the mission control centre of the manned spaceflight center in the Houston had a problem, Gemini VI had failed. For the first time in over 4 years NASA had launched a human space flight mission that had ended in failure. True, the humans in the mission had not actually gotten off the launch pad since the mission had ended when the unmanned Gemini Agena Target Vehicle had destroyed itself on the way to orbit. Still Gemini VI was a failed mission. How NASA responded to that failure would say a lot about how far it had come in four years - and how it was preparing for its much longer journey to the surface of the Moon and back. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the Terranauts podcast, NASA is about about to launch Gemini VI but something happens somethings that had never happened to a crewed mission before. As the launch of Gemini VI approached in the fall of 1965, everyone on the Gemini program was focussed on the problem of rendezvous. Last episode we talked about what that entailed. But in addition to worrying about how rendezvous would actually work, there were still some very real questions about the Gemini Agena Target Vehicle that the US Air Force and Lockheed were supplying to the program. Nevertheless by October of 1965, a target vehicle had been tested, retested and accepted by NASA. It was sitting atop it's Atlas launch vehicle preparing for it's date with destiny and the Gemini spacecraft containing Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford - which was sitting on it's own launch pad a short distance away. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

By the Fall of 1965, the Gemini program was well underway and riding the wave of a couple of very successful flights. NASA engineers and management could take pride in the fact that success had actually been fairly hard won. NASA had proven that it could work through significant issues and contingencies and still find a way to make it all work on orbit. There was still one major objective that had remained out of reach, though. And that was the issue of spacecraft rendezvous. So although NASA had proven they could make it work, they still needed to prove they could get it all together before they did so. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode NASA and Project Gemini really stretch their legs in an attempt to set the record for the longest human space flight. Reaching the goal of 8 days will mean proving that humans can live and work in space long enough to get to the Moon and back. All that NASA needed was a good plan, a little bit of luck... and a working fuel cell. Tune in to see how THAT worked out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This time on Terranauts we are back to talking about Project Gemini. With the accolades from Ed White's stunning spacewalk still ringing in their ears, the Project Gemini team needed to go back to work to continue their mission of getting NASA ready for the Apollo program and it's date with destiny on the surface of the Moon. By the time Gemini IV landed less than 4 and half years remained for NASA to meet President Kennedy's deadline. And there were a lot of things NASA did not yet know how to do. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Terranauts is back for Season 4. This season we are planning to follow Gemini as it accelerates off the launch pad on the way to putting NASA firmly on a course for the Moon. Today, though, in addition to setting the stage for season 4, I'd like to pause and think about how some parts of the Terranaut journey haven't changed all that much in nearly 60 years. Including the fact the Mother Nature continues to get a vote on when it's time to GO. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.