141 a
Richard Gordon

The Agena tethered to the Gemini spacecraft viewed against the black sky of space

Gemini XI, September 12-15, 1966, orbit 31, 049:55:00 GET

Unreleased photograph, vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso, numbered “NASA S-66-54803” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin

141 b
Richard Gordon

The Agena tethered to the spacecraft over the Pacific Ocean off Mexico

Gemini XI, September 12-15, 1966, orbit 31, 050:08:00 GET

Unreleased photograph, vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso, numbered “NASA S-66-54809” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin

141 c
Richard Gordon

The Agena tethered to the spacecraft and the Earth horizon

Gemini XI, September 12-15, 1966, orbit 32, 051:30:00 GET

Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso, numbered “NASA S-66-54571” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin, with a small crease in the black sky of space
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

141 c
NASA SP-171, p. 13.

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Lot Essay

141 a
After tethering of the two spacecrafts by Richard Gordon during his EVA, Conrad undocked from the Agena and backed slowly away, stretching the 100-foot tether taut. At first, the vehicles wobbled and the tether swung like a skip rope. Firing a burst from his thrusters, Conrad stabilized the gently rotating spaceships, generating a mild centrifugal
force that simulated a 0.00015 g of artificial gravity.

The photograph was taken with the Hasselblad Super Wide camera and its 38mm lens.

049:50:46 Conrad: This is Gemini XI, and we’ve undocked from the Agena ...
049:50:50 Gordon: The Agena is at an Inertial Attitude; pitch down 30 degrees below level vertical and we’re pulling out the tether.
049:50:57 Capcom (Mission Control): Okay.
049:51:35 Conrad: We sort of upset the Agena a little bit with the tether - when we undocked and he’s sort of stabilizing back into his attitude again.
049:51:45 Capcom: Okay.
049: 51:47 Conrad: Into his attitude again.
049:51:52 Conrad: The tether is not flopping at all and is maintaining tension very nicely.

141 b
The photograph was taken with the Hasselblad Super Wide camera and its 38mm lens.

050:07:04 Gordon: We’re coming in; we’re coming in.
050:07:12 Gordson Wish you could get that tight so I can take a picture.
050:07:18 Conrad: Well, I got myself ... pretty good right now. Whoops !
050:07:21 Gordon Who?
050:07:22 Conrad: See that?
050:07:23 Gordon: It’s still slack.
050:07:24 Conrad: Yes, I know, but it starts to take it out.
050:07:29 Gordon: Ought to take it out somewhere along the line.
050:07:32 Gordon: The Agena’s inertial. It isn’t going to do much.
050:07:51 Conrad: This tether’s doing something that I never thought it would do. It’s like the Agena and I have a skip rope between us and it’s rotating and making a big loop. And I have things pretty well under hand now and it looks like we’re skipping rope with the thing out here.

“[Gemini] XI did it great. They even had a tether line hooked up to the Agena and were going round and round like this [gestures]. Unbelievable series of photographs.”
NASA chief of photography Richard Underwood (NASA JSC Oral History)

141 c
Clouds, Jamaica and atolls in the Caribbean Sea are visible below the Agena in this photograph taken looking northeast with the Hasselblad Super Wide camera and its 38mm lens.

051:29:27 Capcom (Mission Control): We copy that.
Understand you’ve been trying to spin it up a little faster.
051:29:32 Conrad: Negative. We Just got stabilized. I haven’t - since I let go of the dump back over the States, the very first time - I haven’t touched a thing. I’m powered to Gemini now.
051:29:43 Capcom: Okay. How do you feel about, oh, trying to spin her up a little bit more?
051:29:48 Conrad: I don’t know. What’ll it prove? We’re nice and stable and steady, Stationkeeping right now. We do get a little artificial gravity out of it. We can stick a camera or something up against the bulkhead and it floats back in the direction of the tether every time.
051:30:05 Capcom: Okay.
051:30:09 Conrad: I think all we’d do is waste fuel and I’m sure that it would be damped.
051:30:15 Capcom: What have you got on Prop Quantity?
051:30:20 Conrad: Looks like about 19 percent.
051:30:32 Conrad: Another thing is I’m not sure how much line it’s going to need to de-spin this thing. I’d Just as soon not shoot a bucket getting all wound up and not have anything in my hip pocket to get unwound.