Neil Armstrong always sounds like he's driving a bus down the highway.. so calm.

“Any mission that you can safely return your astronauts is a success.” - Gene Kranz

I'm blown away that no one on the ground seems even to know what the problem is before Armstrong fixes it on his own initiative, while spinning on his head at 60 RPM. Nerves of f**king steel.

"Did you say negative ? " "Affirmative, that's a negative. " :D

As long as this video is, it was acutally worth it to sit and listen to the whole exchange from the Gemini spin till the end of the video - just seeing how everyone communicates and works together. These guys had balls of steel.

What I love about this is there's lots of people repeating the same instructions over and over, verifying, pointing out mistakes and making corrections, and no one at any point goes on the defensive or gets bent out of shape.

For those who don't know, the various controllers are stationed in different areas around the world. They even had ships in the ocean so they could talk to the craft as it passed over. Mission Control could talk to and listen to the conversations at the remote sites, but the remote sites were the only ones who could directly talk to the craft when it was out of range of Mission Control.

This is one of at least four times that Armstrong's skill save his life and/or the mission.

First among the many thanks I have for putting up these great videos is: for NOT dubbing in any distracting background music like so many other unlistenable documentary presentations on KZfaq.

24:06 Deke Slayton: "Paul...........Paul!" *Signals him to kill the live feed*

Both Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott did get to go to the Moon... While Neil became the first man to walk there, Dave became the first man to drive on the Moon with the Lunar Roving Vehicle on Apollo 15.

I can't even imagine how terrifying that must have been. Balls of steel.

Skip to 23:00 for the roll and Armstrong's audio

Fantastic guys. I feel sick when inadequate people on here try to dis them. I remember as a kid seeing the Gemini/Agena drifting overhead. In my binoculars I could see the two craft. Priceless memory.

Amazing to hear the recordings from NASA archive.

"You spin me right round baby right round like a record baby right round round round ! "

It was 1960's men that brought themselves back. The fact that any of these men came back with 1960's tech always blows my mind. Neil Armstrong greatest civilian pilot of all time.

PRIMUM! IN before the conspiraturds. I was in the US Navy 1963-1973, and assure you that every mission was give the maximum possible coverage on military bases, even if the commercial TV Stations ignored some or all of it. I wallowed in nostalgia reviewing this video :)

After this flight, switches were added to remaining Gemini spacecraft so that you could turn off each individual thruster. That lesson learned carried over to all future spacecraft (apollo, shuttle, etc.) as well.

What amazes me is how sophisticated Gemini was. World wide communication was really good and the uplinking and downlinking of data is almost as fast and easy as Shuttle (but they did need some crew interaction). I did notice that Flight Director talked a little too much, or more importantly, talked at the wrong times. Capcom went a long way in keeping his cool and managing to keep Flight up to speed as much as he could. All in all, Gemini was a truly capable machine to be crammed into such a small space. This was a very interesting (and informative) video.

How many times did Neil Armstrong save the U.S. space program?

There’s a reason why Neil was picked as commander of Apolllo 11. It’s this mission. Gemini 8.

I like how the crew had the foresight to turn the 16mm movie camera back on when they noticed they were tumbling.

23:12 the animations are incredible here. I can't imagine rolling for that long.

who's here after watching first man??

We had the PCM test ground station system from McDonnell which was scrapped to our lab @ University of Missouri, Rolla. We had two of the 'tapes' they were using, which were probably 7 track Ampex drives like ours (which came with our system). We could play the tape data channels thru a PCM de-commutator, which decoded the 1220 channel or so bit data stream into all the different instruments we had. We had the 20 racks of channel displays, which showed the digital value of each channel, an analog meter, and had an output so one could connect various instruments. They had an onboard tape of the data which they were playing back since the problem happened in time when the ground connect didn't exist. The other part of our test system was a full set of microwave systems to connect to a test Gemini CM in the factory. In all the test system was about 40 7 foot high standard NASA retma 19 inch racks.

Neil Armstrong...one cool customer...

FYI, the CAPCOM sending up the "if the Agena goes wild" info is none other than Jim Lovell.

I've been looking for a good Gemini 8 video for ages. Thanks sir.

23:12 “We have serious problems here!”

Amazing !Although sitting in a tumbling washing machine they stayed calm and cool as if having a beer and a conversation at a bar counter ,it must be because of the right stuff!

Thank you so much for these historic videos. They are so incredibly interesting!

To those who feel the need to criticize, this was 50 years ago. Relax.

I wonder how close they were to passing out during the violent roll? Those guys were some cool cucumbers.

They didn't have a backup cut-off for the roll thrusters, which were able to fail open. They didn't have reliable full-time communications. It was possible to lose communications during an emergency. They didn't have nearly enough telemetry. Their procedures were under-developed. It was all brand new. No one knew what they were doing, but they managed. And Neil Armstrong's brilliant piloting and nerves of steel saved the day. This was not the first time that he would do that, nor would it be the last. Did you hear the details that he provided in his briefing? He remembered everything that happened. Many other astronauts -- and controllers -- performed just as brilliantly, given the tools that they had available. I got to watch it live as a kid. It was a privilege, and it was when I learned to be proud of my country.

The "it didnt happen" nuts are just trolls. Just mark them as spam and move on. Pretty soon they will be talking to themselves (doing things "by themselves" is probably a familar thing)

Once again, fantastic job, LM5! (I use the word "fantastic," but truthfully, there is no superlative worthy of describing the brilliance of your work.) I've probably told you this before, but your videos are *clearly* labors of love. Not for one moment do I-or anyone else who views these, I'm certain-take your unimaginably long, arduous efforts for granted, my friend. Keep the videos coming when you can!

Just like my first docking in KSP.

Fantastic presentation. Thanks

Wow! Incredible detail. Thank you so much for posting.

I can never watch this or read about it without thinking of how paralyzed with panic I would have been. I'm sure Neil and Dave felt plenty of fear (how could you not?), but they held it together, and Neil... definition of a steely-eyed missile man! Saving his ship and his pilot under those circumstances baffles a mere mortal like me. I wonder if this is really how he earned his command of Apollo 11? He proved he's the guy you want at the controls when things go south.

The rotation was such that the two pilots approached the limit of unconsciousness. Finally, Armstrong helped the re-entry motors to stop the rotation, which precipitated the return to Earth. The mission had aborted but the coolness with which Armstrong got out of the situation (considered the most serious until Apollo 13 flight in 1970

Flight director is John Hodge. British born, which explains the awesome accent :)

This video is brilliant! Great work, you obviously love what you do, it really shows! Thanks for sharing.

I've watched the Apollo 11 and 13 recently and the difference between comms and procedures is stunning. With TDRS today I imagine comms are continuous in earth orbit.

Dear God. Armstrong was cool as a cucumber during what had to be an utterly disorienting roll. I have heard him reffered to as "The greatest American who ever lived". I have seen nothing to disprove this observation.

Yet another wonderful series from LM-5!

Thx LEM! Another awesome vid/audio! Keep em coming :)

According to the Wiki article on the subject, Armstrong used up 75 percent of the OAMS propellant just getting the spaceship under control. There were two sets of oxidiser and propellant tanks (hypergolic). Both of them were opened up at this point. After that only the final RCS solenoid valves were holding the reactants in. (it sounds as if there is a one way only solenoid valve at each reactant tank). The RCS can yaw and pitch the capsule but not decelerate it . Orbital velocity is around 7000 m/s within a few hundred km of the earth. The untouched Retrofire system had 100kg propellant mass available . This would give a delta V to the capsule of -101m/s . What Armstrong had was about 30 percent off OAMS ( Orbital attitude and manoevring ) left and about 25percent of Reaction control system fuel left . This latter was required to set the capsule up in attitude for re-entry after retrograde burn from the solid rockets. The capsule is set up to spin on its major axis while re-entering to spread heat loading over the heat shield. data from a braeunig dot us internet site - unverified. Total mass: 1,982 kg Gemini Total mass: 1,982 kg for crew capsule including 33 kg of attitude control propellant. RETRO MODULE Length: 0.9 m Maximum diameter: 2.6 m Total mass: 591 kg (structure 160 kg; reaction control system 200 kg; maneuvering system 131 kg) Propellant mass: 100 kg Reaction control system thrusters: 6 x 400 N + 2 x 400 N deceleration thrusters propellant: NTO/MMH specific impulse: 273 s total impulse: see equipment module Retro-rockets thrust: 4 x 11.12 kN propellant: solid specific impulse: 255 s Note Veq for propellant is about 2500 m/s based on this. delta v: 101 m/s

"Roger, Big Brother is watching" "Say again?" Changes subject..

These are wonderful. Thank you so much!

Wonderful reconstitution and video editing. You did an amazing job, congratulations! Thank you very much.

Another great episode!!! Thanks LM5

Neil was the coolist pilot of all time. His veins must have flowed with cool courage!

What's interesting too, you can see in the medical report that during the incident, Armstrong heart rate rises quickly and "high" while Scott's remains essentially the same.

This is amazing. Thanks for the upload!

Biggest fear must have been them hitting the Agena during that roll

this is truly amazing

20:24 "Roger. Big Brother is watching." "Say again?" lol

Beautiful work. Thanks 👍🏼

Gemini 8 was the other Apollo 13, but the crisis was resolved in minutes, so quickly that the TV networks did not report live the dangerous spin. Otherwise, "We've Got Some Serious Problems Here," would have become "Houston, We've Had a Problem."

I'd like to put in a request for Gemini 12. (The mission that saw Buzz Aldrin save the manned space flight program.) Mission was so huge and almost no one knows about it.

25:47 "Roger. What about the Agena?" The tone of that "stand-by" response says everything. The director was probably concerned about them hitting it but . . . .

First Man made this too intense, as expected for Hollywood movies.

These are really awesome series! I am enjoying them a lot. Would like to see more of 11!

That is frightening!

Excelente, tu trabajo es excelente, me gustó muchísimo, me sentí dentro de la Gemini 8… Gracias!!!

Those were incredibly exciting times.

Thanks again awesome job!😁

Amazing how far we have come with our orbital communications. Flight must have had a bear of a time switching from Hawaii to RKV for contact then having to verify how much of the command the Gemini actually received. All that double checking was normal whereas today we only complain when the video feed cuts out!

I just received my Oculus Rift VR headset and now I'm in awe of virtual reality. When I first put it on I immediately thought of these videos and how they would look in the VR universe. (No pun intended) I did see one afterwards that shows a 15 minute Mercury takeoff and orbit but it doesn't show the whole mission. It's called, "Go For Launch: Mercury". This game lets you sit inside the capsule and also look around outside it. I see that your videos are drawn up in what looks like a CAD type software so I would think it would already be in 3D. I know it won't be easy to do this but I wonder how hard it would be to convert at least one mission into a cool VR "game" like the one I mentioned earlier. You would be doing such a huge favor to us history buffs that love to see up close and feel part of Mankind's awesome endeavors like going to the Moon. I would definitely buy such a program.

CSQ =Call sign of NASA tracking ship Coastal Sentry Quebec which according to the authors of On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini ( Appendix F ) was "originally a C1-M-AVI class freighter, considerably modified as tracking ship." S/C=Spacecraft

22:10 "Ahh Neil we're in a bank..............We're not doing it, it's not us."

22:30 holy shit the movie got it perfectly

Amazing audio!

There sure are lots of guys named Roger! lol

Flight has a great accent on this one.

That was scary seeing the Gemini 8 spinning out of control.

Awesome!!

Who is this Roger? He is not on the passenger list!

Neil Armstrong became the commander of Apollo 11 bc he had more experience with flying rockets than anyone else in the astronaut's office

"Flight" is John Hodge-Blue Flight.

Whoa, that really happened. Crazy.

incredible

One smooth dude!

Any idea what kind of G forces they were experiencing during the most severe roll rate?

I love these videos! They really bring this to life. What software did you use to create this simulation?

This is what got Neil Armstrong to be selected to Command Apollo 11 first man on Moon

8:36 Neil says: "The Agena was very stable and at the present time we're having no noticeable oscillations at all." Well, for the present time.

23:11 is what you came here for.

Cool under pressure.

Last thing you wanna do, in space & in a violent roll, is look out the window at Earth. If you dont stay calm and focus on your instruments you could pass out or hyperventilate. Bad news....

Neil did all the computations on paper to find Agena...Then he saved the day by starting the re-entry cycle to stop the spinning from the faulty retro rocket engine..

THanks for this but must ask if there is a way to wash out the annoying background pulsing sound

The animation from 23:00 onwards is incorrect. It is showing a yaw manouver, but the capsule was actually experiencing a roll (rotation on the axis from the rear of the craft forwards through the nose)

Wow ! beautiful realistic animations. But what was going on there >11:11< on the Agena ?

What textures are you using for the Gemini?

55 years ago today March 16, 1966--- March 16,2021. I am wondering where all of the time went. I am even wondering where the time will go. There is no longer public interest in this. There are unmanned probes landing on Mars and studying the other planets, but manned spaceflight has little interest.

18:44 - 20:07 Audio heard in end credits to “First Man”(2018)

And this was both astronauts first space flight 😅