SPACECRAFT LEAKS AFTER HITTING WATER

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31080, 8 June 1966, Page 17

SPACECRAFT LEAKS AFTER HITTING WATER

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright? ABOARD U.S.S. WASP, June 7. Gemini IX, plagued with bad luck during its three-day space flight, made a perfect splash-down in the western Atlantic today—then sprang a leak.

“We are starting to leak water, get the swimmers over here,” Thomas Stafford and Eugene Ceman radioed. But they stayed afloat, and frogmen arrived in time to prevent anv serious damage, fixing a “flotation collar” to the capsule. Stafford and Cernan —after 72 hours and 20 minutes in space—landed the space capsule less than two miles from the recovery ship, the United States aircraft carrier Wasp On Television Millions of Americans, including President Johnson, saw the most precise landingof any of the 13 American manned space flights by television from a satellite.

Mr Johnson later telephoned the astronauts aboard the Wasp and told them they had written “one of the finest chapters in our whole space programme.” Stafford, who has known more frustration than any other American spaceman, and Cernan, who spent a record two hours spacewalking on his first trip, stood up in their heat-scorched capsule, grinned and waved after it splashed down. The band aboard the Wasp played “Anchors Aweigh.” Fifty minutes after their splashdown, the astronauts were winched aboard the Wasp, still in the dripping capsule. Appeared Tired Both men needed shaves. Stafford, aged 35, wiped sweat from his forehead, and Cernan, aged 32, appeared tired and drawn.

But they stepped smiling from their craft slung arms around each other’s shoulders, and advanced to accept the congratulations of the waiting Wasp officers and space programme officials. The first men to reach the astronauts reported they were in good shape.

Soon after they came aboard, President Johnson put a telephone call through to the Wasp from his ranch outside Johnson City, Texas. He told Cernan he had been promoted from lieu-tenant-commander to com-

mander in the Navy. Stafford already had won a promotion to lieutenantColonel in the Air Force after his Gemini VII flight last December with Walter Schirra.

“You have made all of us more aware of what performance under pressure is all about and that includes

courage,” the President said. “Thank you, sir,” Stafford replied. "I think this trip has added a great deal to our knowledge of space science, and Gene and I are both happy. “We think we had a great flight and it helped advance space science quite a bit. And it was a two-man job all the way.” After exhaustive physical check-ups and their first normal meals in three days, Stafford and Ceman were being flown to Cape Kennedy, Florida, for three days of debriefing. They will return to

the Houston space centre on Thursday. The astronauts and space officials agreed that the saga of Gemini IX was also a testimonial to man's increasing proficiency in space. Twice, Stafford and Cernan

had sat helplessly in their capsule while mishaps prevented them from taking off. When they got aloft, they found they could not dock with a target satellite because

a protective shield was still partially attached to it." Cernan could not carry out the most ambitious phase of

his space walk—an extended journey through the void with a jet powered "Buck Rogers” pack on his back—because his helmet visor frosted over and blinded him. But, Ceman said aboard the Wasp, space-walking has “opened up a whole new dimension in space flight.” “I found, though things are kind of difficult to do in space,” he said, “it requires a lot more effort than you would expect." The space scientists were eager to talk to Stafford and Cernan so that they could start applying the hard-won lessons of Gemini IX to the three remaining flights In the Gemini programme. Another space walk, but without the “Buck Rogers” pack, is scheduled for the Gemini X flight of John Young and Michael Collins next month. The advanced space walk equipment is planned for Anal Gemini XII flight

Stafford’s landing was 350 miles east-south-east of Cape Kennedy within eyesight of the Wasp. Ceman called the accuracy “fantastic.” As the Gemini craft reentered from space into the atmosphere of the earth, its outside heat rose to 3000 degrees and it became a fiery ball.