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Lot 112
[Gemini XI] THE FIRST SPACE VEHICLE TETHERED TO A ANOTHER IN ORBIT: Agena over the Gulf of California Richard Gordon, 12-15 September 1966
14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue HocheSold for €512 inc. premium
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[Gemini XI] THE FIRST SPACE VEHICLE TETHERED TO A ANOTHER IN ORBIT: Agena over the Gulf of California
Richard Gordon, 12-15 September 1966
Printed 1966.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image S-66-54810].
With NASA caption and "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse, numbered "NASA S-66-54810" in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
After Richard Gordon tethered the two spacecraft during his EVA, Pete Conrad undocked Gemini XI from the Agena and slowly backed away, stretching the 100-foot tether taut. Initially, the vehicles wobbled, and the tether swung like a jump rope, as seen in the photograph. With a burst from his thrusters, Conrad stabilized the gently rotating spacecraft, creating a mild centrifugal force that simulated 0.00015 g of artificial gravity.
NASA's chief of photography, Richard Underwood, remarked: "[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 JSC Oral History)
Printed 1966.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image S-66-54810].
With NASA caption and "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse, numbered "NASA S-66-54810" in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
After Richard Gordon tethered the two spacecraft during his EVA, Pete Conrad undocked Gemini XI from the Agena and slowly backed away, stretching the 100-foot tether taut. Initially, the vehicles wobbled, and the tether swung like a jump rope, as seen in the photograph. With a burst from his thrusters, Conrad stabilized the gently rotating spacecraft, creating a mild centrifugal force that simulated 0.00015 g of artificial gravity.
NASA's chief of photography, Richard Underwood, remarked: "[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 JSC Oral History)
Footnotes
The two spacecraft remained tethered for about three hours until the crew fired a small pyrotechnic charge to release the docking bar. The tether was then cut loose from Gemini XI and wrapped around the Agena Target Vehicle.
The photograph was captured with the Hasselblad Super Wide camera and its 38mm lens.
From the mission transcript when the photograph was taken:
050:07:04 Gordon: We're coming in; we're coming in.
050:07:12 Gordon: 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.
Literature
The View from Space, American Astronaut Photography, 1962-1972, Schick and Van Haaften, p. 79
Watch more
CLICK HERE: Gemini XI (1966)
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