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Product Name: Gemini 9 Target A

Product Description

The Gemini 9 Agena Target Vehicle (vehicle GATV 5004) was intended as a docking target for the Gemini 9 mission, scheduled to launch 99 minutes after the GATV. Launch of the GATV took place at 10:12 a.m. EST (15:12 UT) on 17 May 1966. At 120.6 seconds after liftoff, the Atlas no. 2 booster engine swiveled to an extreme hardover position about 10 seconds before booster engine cutoff. The other booster and sustainer engine, under autopilot, worked to counter the asymmetrical thrust, but the vehicle pitched downward and after booster separation the vehicle continued flying under sustained thrust, having pitched down 216 degrees from the 67 degree nominal position, so it was flying north back toward Cape Kennedy at a climbing angle of 13 degrees above horizontal. It had also rolled to a position where ground guidance could not lock on. The vernier engines cut off at 300 seconds. The Agena separated on schedule and both vehicles plunged into the sea about 172 km northeast of the launch site, 145 km off the coast of Florida seven and a half minutes after launch. Radar data from the Grand Bahama Island station at 436 seconds after launch placed the vehicle about 191.6 km from the launch site at 29,500 meters altitude, headed north and descending. The exact reason for the loss of engine pitch control was unknown, data indicated that a short-to-ground occurred in the circuit for the servoamplifier output command signal. The short may have been caused by cryogenic leakage in the thrust section. Scheduled launch of the Gemini 9 spacecraft was cancelled.

Company Details

Gemini 9A was the seventh crewed Earth-orbiting spacecraft of the Gemini series. It carried astronauts Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan. Primary mission objectives were to demonstrate (1) rendezvous techniques and docking with a target vehicle to... more