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Gemini 2 was an unmanned flight in the
U.S.
Gemini program. Gemini 2 was launched on a
Titan
II rocket. The flight was a suborbital test of various systems.
It later became the first spacecraft flown into space twice when it
was sent on an unmanned military mission.
The Titan II/Gemini launch vehicle had to be dismantled to
protect it from 2 hurricanes in August and September of 1964. The
2nd stage of the vehicle was taken down and stored in a hangar
on 26 August
1964 in preparation
for Hurricane
Cleo, but the entire launch vehicle was dismantled and removed
from Pad 19 in early September before Hurricane
Dora passed over Cape
Canaveral on September 9th. The Gemini launch vehicle was
erected for the final time on 12
September 1964.
Many ground tests were carried out on the Gemini 2 and Titan
rocket in November, 1964. On November 24, 1964, Gemini-Titan (GT) 2
successfully completed the Wet Mock Simulated Launch, a full-scale
countdown exercise which included propellant loading. Procedures for
flight crew suiting and spacecraft ingress were practiced during
simulated launch. The primary Gemini-Titan 3 flight crew donned the
training suits and full biomedical instrumentation, assisted by the
space suit bioinstrumentation and aeromedical personnel who would
participate in the GT-3 launch operation. As a result of this
practice operation, it was established that all physical
examinations, bioinstrumentation sensor attachment, and suit donning
would be done in the pilot ready room at complex 16. (See photo of
GT-3 crew leaving GT-2 launch simulation).
Gemini II had been scheduled for launch December
9, 1964. On that
date the countdown reached zero and the stage one engines were
ignited. The launch vehicle's Malfunction Detection System detected
technical problems due to a loss of hydraulic
pressure and shutdown the engines about one second after
ignition.
Gemini 2 lifted off from Launch Complex 19 at Cape Kennedy on
January 19,
1965 at 9:03:59 a.m.
EST (14:03:59.861 UT). It flew a ballistic suboribtal arch over the
Atlantic Ocean reaching a maximum altitude of 171.2 km. The
spacecraft was run by an onboard automatic sequencer. At 6 minutes
54 seconds after launch retrorockets were fired. The spacecraft
landed 3,422.4 km downrange from Cape Kennedy, Florida. The flight
lasted 18 minutes 16 seconds. The landing was 26 km short of the
planned impact point, and 84 km from the recovery aircraft carrier,
the U.S.S. Lake Champlain. The spacecraft was brought aboard the
carrier at 15:52 UT (10:52 a.m. EST). Most goals were achieved
except, the fuel cells had failed before liftoff and were turned
off. The spacecraft cooling system temperature also was found to be
too high. The Gemini 2 was in excellent condition. Its heat shield
and retrorockets functioned as expected. The Gemini 2 mission was
supported by the following U.S. Department of Defense resources;
6,562 personnel, 67 aircraft and 16 ships.
Gemini 2 had flight instrumentation pallets installed in the crew
cabin, similar to
Gemini
1.
The Gemini 2 reentry module was refurbished and flown again on
November 3, 1966 in a test flight for the U.S. Air Force Manned
Orbiting Laboratory program. It was launched on a Titan IIIC
rocket on 33-minute suborbital flight from LC-40 at Cape Canaveral,
Florida.
Capsule Location
It is currently on display at the U.S.
Air Force Space Museum, Cape
Canaveral Air Station, Florida. Its guidance computer is held at
the Smithsonian
Air and
Space Museum.
