2024-01-26 07:00:36
One of the reasons why test pilots were chosen for the first manned launches was the need to have people capable of facing extreme situations. Little was known about space and even less about whether a human being would be psychologically capable of withstanding the pressure of loneliness in orbit. But as soon as the first test flights were launched, with dogs and chimpanzees on board, it seemed clear that there was no big deal. The main problem, in reality, would come from the tight work schedule of a space trip. Being a unique opportunity, the astronauts would endure exhausting work days to make the most of their trip.
Like their predecessors, the crew of the Gemini-11 spacecraft, Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon, in September 1966, they faced a tremendously overloaded work plan. They performed experiments, observations, physiological measurements, and countless carefully planned operations that kept them constantly busy. Fatigue accumulated quickly, and at the end of the three-day mission, both were so tired that they ended up doing something completely unforeseen.
Shortly before returning home, the crews carried out various final tasks to prepare in the best possible conditions for their return to the atmosphere. They saved results and experiments, made final checks of the ship’s systems to ensure that everything would work as scheduled at the crucial moments of reentry, and maneuvered and oriented the vehicle so that its engine was acting in the proper direction. But before carrying out these last operations, NASA gave Conrad and Gordon a final task: the agency wanted the astronauts to literally throw overboard some bags of garbage they had accumulated during the trip. Eliminating this useless mass would increase the safety margins in fuel consumption for retrobraking, in addition to freeing up space inside the cabin.
To carry out the operation, both men put on space suits and depressurized the spacecraft. Then they opened the hatch and Gordon threw the packages out, using even more force than necessary. His partner would have to grab one of his legs since he and other things not secured inside the vehicle were suddenly propelled out. Once they got over the shock, and with the overwhelming vision of the Earth below them and the sky itself, the spectacle was so beautiful that Gordon decided to take some images. It was then that, instead of immediately closing the hatch, they decided to wait a few more minutes. The opportunity was unique, and since a ship is not depressurized every day, they wanted to wait to fly over the night zone of their orbit, when new opportunities could arise to obtain spectacular photographs.
The journey shouldn’t have taken long, less than an hour, but his exhaustion was now evident. Their exhaustion was so much that both astronauts fell asleep: Conrad inside, and Gordon almost hanging from the safety cable, outside the hatch. Fortunately, they quickly regained their composure and everything returned to normal. In later days, his unexpected nap would be described as the first in the world to take place in the vacuum of space.
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