I SEE SOMETHING AT 12 O’CLOCK

Gemini VI performed the rendezvous from below because orbital mechanics allow the spacecraft in the lower orbit to catch up to its target in the higher orbit simply because the lower orbit provided less distance to travel.

 

Although the NASA documentary made on the Gemini VI rendezvous has a soundtrack where an obviously re-recorded voice of Stafford is portrayed as being the first person to sight Gemini VII. A careful reading of the transcript shows that it was Schirra who first spotted the target.

 

“I see something at 12 o’clock,” Schirra stated at 05:04:32 mission elapsed time.

 

At that moment Stafford was actually blinded by the sun reflecting off the nose of the spacecraft. He couldn’t see anything including the stars, but at 05:05:05 Stafford excitedly reported,

 

“Hey, I think I got it! That’s Seven, Wally!”

 

Controllers at the Ascension ground station disagreed considering that spacecraft 7 was 51 miles ahead of Gemini VI at that moment. For several minutes the crew debated as to whether or not the bright object in the sky they were seeing was Gemini VII or the star Sirius. As it turned out they were in fact seeing spacecraft 7.

 Aboard spacecraft 7 Borman and Lovell soon caught sight of spacecraft 6 as it originally appeared looking like a bright star but then rapidly drew near them from below.

 

Just 31 minutes after the initial sighting Gemini VI was 7.7 miles from Gemini VII. All of Stafford’s calculations and computer readings were coming together perfectly. Schirra was making precision burns at absolutely the correct times and using minimum fuel to accomplish rendezvous. By 05:56:01 Gemini VI was at 120 feet and station keeping with Gemini VII; rendezvous had been successfully accomplished for the first time in space.

 It was an exciting moment, so much so that even Frank Borman got a little humorous when asking what attitude Schirra wanted him to maintain.

 

“I'm going to go ahead and put it on Inertial -Neutral here and stay right on the horizon,” Borman said, “if that's what Precious wants.” 

By the term “precious” he was the facetiously referring to Schirra.

 

Flying in formation that more than 17,000 miles per hour the astronauts of both spacecraft finally got a chance to see what another spacecraft in flight looked like. One of the first things that they noticed were long, gold foil coated wires or cables protruding from the back of one another’s spacecraft. Borman had initially commented about this but the crew of spacecraft 6 didn’t hear the message.

“You guys are really showing a…” Schirra began, “of droop on those wires hanging there.”

 

“… On me?” Borman replied, “Where they hanging from?”

“Well,” Schirra described, “Frank, it looks like it comes out at the separation between… It might be fiberglass. It’s approximately… oh… 10 to 15 feet long.”

 

“The separation came from the booster,” Borman reckoned, “right?”

 

“Affirmative,” Schirra replied.

 

“That’s exactly where you have one too,” Borman stated with satisfaction, “it really belted around there when you were firing your thrusters.”

 

“Looks like about eight or 9 feet long and double wire,” Schirra observed.

 

“Right,” Borman agreed.

 

For just over six hours the two spacecraft flew in close formation as Schirra maneuvered spacecraft 6 around spacecraft 7. Borman and Lovell were conserving fuel and essentially remained in a near drifting flight attitude. Both crews, however, had plenty of film and took scores of photos and a library of movies during the exercise. At one point Tom Stafford held a sign up in his window that read, “BEAT ARMY” which was a reference to the upcoming Army-Navy football game. Stafford, Schirra and Lovell were all graduates of the United States Naval Academy while Borman was a graduate of West Point.