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Before the advent of YouTube and other video sharing venue via the Internet, broadcast
television was THE medium for visual entertainment other than an occasional
jaunt to the movie theater. You either watched shows when they first aired or hope
to catch them on reruns. TV Guide
was THE go-to publication for all things television. Out of print now,
it was for many of us the schedule setter for Saturday morning cartoons and Prime
Time comedy shows.
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While looking for the
edition of TV Guide that published the first airing of "A Charlie
Brown Christmas," I noticed that the time period coincided with the launching
of the Gemini VII spacecraft. In a stroke of good fortune, it indeed included
an announcement that regularly scheduled programming would be preempted as necessary
to provide live coverage of the launch, to give timely updates, and to coverage
the splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.
2:30 Gemini Space Flight
 The 14-day Gemini VII space flight is scheduled for launching from Cape Kennedy's
Pad 19 at 2:30 P.M. Astronauts Frank Borman and James A. Lovell will be making man's
longest journey into space, which will help determine the medical and psychological
effects of prolonged periods of weightlessness. Twenty medical and technological
experiments will also be conducted.
This will also be the first U.S. "shirt-sleeves" flight. After making certain
that the space capsule's pressure hull will not expose them to the vacuum of space,
Borman and Lovell will remove their pressure suits and spend about 10 days of the
flight in the comfort of their undergarments. The astronauts will suit up again
for reentry. (Splashdown is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 18, in the West Atlantic.)
Borman and Lovell
will not be alone for all of their 14-day flight. On Dec. 13, NASA plans to launch
the Gemini VI space capsule. Astronauts Walter Schirra and Thomas P. Stafford will
guide their craft to a rendezvous with Gemini VII, which will go into a 18S-mile
circular orbit for the meeting.
There will be no docking maneuvers, and NASA has denied reports that Stafford
will take a spacewalk between the two capsules. The Gemini VI flight, originally
scheduled for last October, had to be postponed because of a malfunction in the
Atlas-Agena rocket, with which Schirra and Stafford were to rendezvous and dock.
Live network coverage will originate from Pad 19, the White House, NASA's Manned
Spacecraft Center in Houston, and other sites. Delays in launching could postpone
the liftoff until tomorrow or Monday. If the flight is postponed, the networks will
resume regular programming, returning to Cape Kennedy on the rescheduled flight
date.
It was after the rendezvous with Gemini 6A that astronauts
Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford famously broke out in a surprise round of "Jingle Bells" after giving a faux report of a 'UFO' sighting of
a man in a red suit and eight tiny reindeer pulling a sleigh.Here are the basics
of the Gemini VII program from the NASA website. Many of the hyperlinks on
pages linked to from NASA's main Gemini page turn up empty pages. The Affordable
Healthcare Act (aka Obammacare) programmers must be maintaining the NASA website
now, too :-(
Gemini-VII
Pad LC-19 () Titan-II (6)
 Crew:
Frank Borman (1), Commander
James A. Lovell (1), Pilot
Backup Crew:
Edward H. White
II Michael Collins
CapCom:
Alan L. Bean (Cape)
Elliot M. See Jr. (Houston)
Eugene A. Cernan (Houston)
Charles A. Bassett II (Houston)
 Milestones:
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Payload:
Gemini-VII capsule
Mission Objective:
Primary object was to conduct 14-day mission and evaluate effects on crew. Secondary
objectives included: Provide target for Gemini VI-A. Stationkeep with Gemini VI-A
and with second stage of GLV. Conduct 20 experiments. Evaluate lightweight pressure
suit. Evaluate spacecraft reentry capability. Conduct systems tests. Spacecraft
weight: 3663kg.
Launch:
December 4, 1965 2:30:03.702pm EST
Orbit:
Altitude:
327km (177.1 nm)
Inclination: 28.89 degrees
Orbits: 206 Duration: 13 Days, 18 hours, 35 min, 1 seconds
Distance:
km
Landing:
December 18, 1965.
Landed at 25deg 25.1min North, 70.6deg 7min West
Miss distance was 11.8km (6.4nm).
Mission Highlights:
All primary and secondary objectives were achieved.
Click Here more information about Gemini-VII
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