Gemini 7: The NASA Mission Reports

On 4 December 1965 NASA launched the Gemini 7 spacecraft, on a Titan II booster, putting Frank Borman and James A Lovell Jr into Earth orbit. Before men could journey to the Moon, new hardware and many new procedures had to be developed and tested. The Gemini VII mission was an important milestone along the path to Apollo. Astronauts Frank Borman, command pilot, and James LovelI, pilot, aboard Gemini VII set a record for space mission duration -- over 330 hours (14 days) initiating the era in which space missions were to be measured in days instead of mere hours. Gemini VII, in concert with Gemini VI, also performed the first-ever orbital rendezvous and station keeping. Another 'first' associated with the mission was the rapid turn-around of a launch facility. The Gemini VI mission (delayed from its original 25 October launch date) was launched from the same pad as Gemini VII, only days later, rather than after the normal two-month turn-around time. Both Borman and LovelI both went on to fly Apollo missions, Borman commanding the first manned space flight to orbit the moon. During this 14 day period, the Gemini 7 mission achieved some remarkable 'firsts' -- manned 'station keeping' (formation flying) and 'proximity operations' (relative manoeuvring in orbit) with the Gemini 6 spacecraft, and performed more than 20 scientific experiments. This report includes some of the rare official documentation of this historic voyage which has been collected and made commercially available for the first time. Includes a CD-ROM featuring: MPG video, Proud Conquest Part II; 16mm In-flight footage; High resolution Earth photographs taken from Gemini VII.

Table of Contents:
Foreword; Preface; Introduction; The Coming of the Fleet; The Day the Earth Stood Still; Twin Earths; War of the Worlds; This Island Earth; Forbidden Planet; Earth vs. the Flying Saucers; Disneyland Flying Saucers; Lost in Space; The Invaders; Index.

About the Author :
Robert Godwin is the owner and founder of Apogee Space Books. He is also the Space Curator at the Canadian Air & Space Museum. He has written or edited over 100 books including the award winning series "The NASA Mission Reports". Robert has appeared on dozens of radio and television programs in Canada, the USA and England as an expert on, not only music, but also space exploration. His books have been discussed on CNN, the CBC, the BBC and CBS 60 Minutes. He produced the first ever virtual reality panoramas of the Apollo lunar surface photography and the first multi-camera angle movie of the Apollo 11 moonwalk. His last book "New Horizons" expanded on that previous ground-breaking work.

Review :
"An invaluable resource for anyone interested in understanding mission objectives..." -- Spaceflight, November 2002. "Overall a good buy for the space fanatic..." -- The Observatory, June 2003. Reviewed in Telescopium, the Journal of the Swedish Astronomical Society, Spring 2003.