NASA as a practical joke played Hello Dolly to wake the Gemini 6 crew in 1965. The astronauts loved it and a tradition was born. Until 2011, families were allowed to choose a favorite song to wake up their loved one in space. popularmechanics.com/spacโฆ
Two Gemini astronauts died when their plane crashed into the building where their spacecraft was being assembled. One astronaut was decapitated, and his head was found in the rafters of the building en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaโฆ
NASA spaces flights have had wake up songs for the astronauts starting with the gemini program, the day 2 song for the SpaceX flight is โplanetary caravanโ by Black Sabbath. history.nasa.gov/wakeup.hโฆ
The US Gemini space capsule had to be redesigned because 14 of the 16 astronauts didn't fit in it. The original design relied so heavily on input from Mercury astronaut 'Gus' Grissom, who was 5' 6", that it was nicknamed the "Gusmobile." airspacemag.com/flight-toโฆ
An instrumental version of the song "Sukiyaki", a story of a man who looks up and whistles while he is walking so that his tears will not fall, was played by NASA over the radio for the Gemini VII astronauts as mood music, thereby becoming one of the first pieces of music sent to humans in space en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukโฆ
On NASA's Gemini XII flight, the computer docking system failed and Buzz Aldrin successfully calculated the docking trajectory using a sextant and a slide rule. nasa.gov/feature/gemini-xโฆ
John Young smuggled an illegal corned beef sandwich on board the Gemini 3 spacecraft in 1965. For this delicious stunt, he was given the first reprimand in NASA space mission history and his snack remains the only contraband sandwich to ever make it into space. smithsonianmag.com/smart-โฆ
On December 16, 1965 astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford became the first people to perform music in space when they played Jingle Bells on a harmonica and bells that they smuggled onto the Gemini VI. airandspace.si.edu/collecโฆ
Maxime Faget was the designer of the Mercury spacecraft, and contributed to the later Gemini and Apollo spacecraft as well as the Space Shuttle. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxโฆ
Black and Decker's "Dustbuster" hand-held vacuum was developed from the specialized, zero-gravity drills NASA used on the Gemini and Apollo missions. kqed.org/science/1944981/โฆ
In 1972, Coca-Cola won a copyright infringement case against a commercially sold parody "Enjoy Cocaine" poster designed to look similar to Coca-Cola's logo. The poster creator, Gemini Rising had to pay $25,000 in connection with a temporary restraining order. law.justia.com/cases/fedeโฆ
NASA's Project Gemini space program is pronounced to rhyme with "knee"(Jeh-mih-nee) and not "eye", like the constellation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proโฆ
Today I learned of the "Corned Beef Controversy" When Astronaut John Young Smuggled a Corned Beef Sandwich Aboard the First Manned Gemini Space Flight gizmodo.com/50-years-ago-โฆ
Castor (in the Gemini constellation) is actually a sextuple star system, with two binary pairs orbiting each other and a third pair orbiting slightly further awayโall close enough to appear as a single point of light from Earth youtu.be/bV3MrXwOU0k
An illegal space sandwich is preserved in acrylic at the Grissom Museum in Indiana (given to Grissom after being smuggled on Gemini 3 in 1965) popularmechanics.com/spacโฆ
Astronauts are not allowed to take bread into space. This is due to astronaut John Young smuggling a corned beef sandwich on Gemini III. The sandwich crumbled apart and launched crumbs in all directions, creating a potential safety/equipment hazard. youtu.be/LBWbvSegvxA?t=12โฆ
The Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Ohio is shaped like a moon and it features the Gemini VIII spacecraft, Neil Armstrong's Gemini and Apollo spacesuits, and a lunar sample. The museum has no formal relationship with Armstrong en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armโฆ
A small town in Kansas has one of the largest space museums in the world, including Liberty Bell 7, the Apollo 13 command module, the Gemini X spacecraft, Vostok and Voshkod spacecraft, an SR-71, Nazi V1 and V2 weapons, and several full-scale launch rockets en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanโฆ
On gemini 5-7, NASA tested astronaut vision by flattening large areas of land into patterns and had the astronauts tell ground control what they saw lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/Experimโฆ
Astronauts Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford made โJingle Bellsโ the first song heard from space. They played it on a harmonica with bells (and implied spotting Santa) while orbiting Earth on Gemini 6 on On Dec. 16, 1965. youtube.com/watch?v=HqfIEโฆ
-Astronauts from the Gemini and Apollo missions used a condom like device to extract urine. The sizes were small, medium and large. Instead of these terms, Astronauts preferred to use "extra large, immense, and unbelievable". airspacemag.com/space/in-โฆ
Gemini & Apollo Astronaut Frank Borman was offered the chance to fly as commander of Apollo 11, the first moon landing, but decided to retire from NASA instead. He would have taken Armstrong's place in history as the first man on the moon. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraโฆ
In 1965, NASA astronaut John Young upset Congress by smuggling a corned beef sandwich onto Gemini 3, prompting The House of Representatives' appropriations committee to organize a meeting to investigate the "sandwich scandal". space.com/28898-gemini-coโฆ
Astronaut John Young smuggled a Corned Beef Sandwich onboard Gemini III because he was "unhappy with with the terrible-tasting space food that astronauts received". wired.com/2012/08/badass-โฆ
Buzz Aldrin received his doctorate from MIT for developing a technique for orbital rendezvous by eye, which he used in Gemini 12 when the radar broke buzzaldrin.com/space-visiโฆ
In 1967 Revell gave away a full size mockup of a Gemini Spacecraft. The winner was a 13 year-old from Portland, Oregon. One of the stipulations of receiving the prize was that it must be donated to a museum by the winner. It is still on display in The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. aviationintel.com/fast-hiโฆ
The largest structure in the universe is called the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall. It's astronomical size spans from 5.4 billion light-years to 18 billion light-years across and covers the region from Boรถtes to as far as the Zodiac constellation of Gemini. iflscience.com/space/whatโฆ
A 1967 sweepstakes by Revell (the scale model kit company) offered a full-size prototype Gemini space capsule as its grand prize. A 13-year-old boy in Portland won it, and donated it to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. airplanesandrockets.com/mโฆ
In a joking nod to the sinking of his Mercury capsule, Astronaut Gus Grissom named his Gemini spacecraft the Molly Brown (after the musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown). When NASA Objected, he suggested the Titanic instead. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gusโฆ
In 1966, two NASA astronauts died in a failed landing attempt when their jet fighter training aircraft partially struck the roof of the building that was assembling their own Gemini 9 space capsule en.wikipedia.org/wiki/196โฆ
Due to a malfunction during a 1964 NASA mission, all messages to the craft Gemini from the southern hemisphere had to delivered through an old automated telephone machine, operated by local woman Lillian O'Donahue. She was rewarded with $6 dollars overtime. honeysucklecreek.net/otheโฆ
Santa was spotted in space in 1965 "I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit" -Gemini 6 crew en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinโฆ
The original design of the Gemini capsule (1961-66) had it land on land using a paraglider, not splashdown in the ocean. When reentering Earth's atmosphere, the sail would deploy and allow the pilot to make a controlled descent and landing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advโฆ
On December 16, 1965 the crew of Gemini 6 trolled mission control by claiming to see a UFO orbiting the north pole. Then they played jingle bells on instruments they smuggled aboard. youtube.com/watch?v=RmsOmโฆ
The father of prop comedian Carrot Top was a scientist at NASA during the Gemini and Apollo era who worked at Cape Canaveral where he was active in the design of the lunar rover, taught moon-bound astronauts how to drive it and then later worked on the Space Shuttle missions. rural-florida-living.com/โฆ
In the 1960s NASA researched having the Gemini spacraft land using a paraglider called "The Rogallo Wing" rather than simple parachutes and a traditional splashdown. popsci.com/paraglider-howโฆ
Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott few the abortive Gemini 8 (aborted because of a bad roll that they had to fire the retro rockets to get off with). youtube.com/watch?v=2p_fKโฆ
Command of Apollo 11 was first offered to Frank Borman, who had commanded earlier Gemini and Apollo flights, but he turned it down in order to retire from NASA. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraโฆ
NASA planned to attempt re-entry of Gemini 9 with an astronaut tethered outside the spacecraft if he could not get back in, most likely killing both astronauts rather than cutting him loose. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gโฆ
During the Gemini 6A mission, on Christmas, the crew reported: "Gemini 7, this is Gemini 6...I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemโฆ
Sagittarius the Archer, one of the constellations of the zodiac, is diametrically opposite (half-way around the year from) the constellation Gemini. Castor and Pollox are the two major stars in the constellation Gemini. imdb.com/title/tt0119094/โฆ
During Gemini 4, the first US spacewalk, Edward Higgins White lost a thermal glove, and it became one of the first pieces of space debris, while it stayed in orbit at over 28,000kph for a month. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwโฆ
In 1966, Neil Armstrong & Dave Scott nearly lost their Gemini 8 capsule when it spun out of control with a stuck thruster. While spinning at 1 rev/sec, Neil diagnosed the problem, stabilized the capsule, & prepped for an emergency re-entry. 25 minute NASA documentary shows film of the incident. youtube.com/watch?v=eP9T4โฆ
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