Gemini Memories from Harry Tripp (retired McDonnell employee)
12/17/2007
I was reading the "MACs Old Team" report of the November luncheon, and noted that
you requested information from any "old coot's" who worked on Gemini. I finished the
final performance specification on Mercury and went immediately to work on Gemini. I
was the lead man on the program with 6-8 people who wrote all specifications and
report's that covered the 52 experiments. I also sat on the management review team for
MAC at the monthly management meetings in Houston and Cape Canaveral.
*** *** ***
12/18/2007
Did you know that the Gemini spacecraft that Jim Lovell flew in had a different
configuration than all other? Because of his height, manufacturing had to make a
"bubble" in his hatch. We called it the Lovell bubble. The "zip" gun used by Ed White
was designed and built on the spur of the moment By 5 of us down at the Cape in about 5
days. Gus Grissom and I were made honorary members of the trowel club [Masonic} on
the same night at Cocoa Beach. We became friends that night and had dinner together
many nights thereafter. The only experiment that was a "dud" was D-12, the EVA
backpack built by Lockheed Dallas. I contributed several sections in the official Project
Final Report [my son has my copy]. We began working on an Apollo rescue vehicle we
called " Big G" and on Gemini B [for USAF] while continuing to work on GT 10-12.
Should I think of more I'll try to send it to you? Harry Tripp
*** *** ***
12/19/2007
Had a comical memory this morning of a meeting with NASA on SKYLAB. We were
discussing a new antenna design. Bill Mayfield, the electronics guru, was making the
presentation when he was interrupted by one of the young bureaucrats with the question
of the antenna array pattern. The guy asked what we were going to do if the antenna test
didn't provide the proper pattern. Bill said something to the affect that "the technician
($*(*#$& would adjust the damn thing, run the test again, and keep it up" till he matched
the pattern. The crowd roared and I never saw the young man at another meeting. Harry
*** *** ***
12/20/2007
Forgive my jumbled responses. MAC was the first aerospace company to offer system
performance reliability of .99999; North American, Lockheed, Boeing, and Martin
thought of us as real enemies. We gave this guarantee on Mercury and Gemini. Our
insulation material for critical components was 24-carat gold leaf on the Mercury
spacecraft. Thank God Mylar was invented, a gold toned Mylar was developed, tested,
and approved for use on Gemini. By the way, if Mylar was soaked overnight in
detergent, and then washed, the fine Irish linen base made fantastic handkerchiefs. I
personally handled the optical experiments on Gemini. For D-4 & D-7 [secret USAF
photo] experiment's we took a Questar, shortened it and hand ground a lens to give the
needed focal length when connected to a Zeiss-Nikon 35mm camera outfitted to use
different filter's. The challenge was to make it fit on a bracket on the right hatch window
and still have enough room for the astronaut to focus the "sucker. I was not allowed to
see the hundreds of photos taken during the mission's because of their top-secret nature. I
did see the test photos of the unit mounted in the nose of a RF-4C PHANTOM at 45K
feet. One could easily discern rivets on an airplane and bricks on a building. Did you
know that resolution is better for views from space to earth than vice-versa?
*** *** ***
12/21/2007
Just finished reading an E-mail from Earl Robb and remember more trivial tripe, Larry
Chocokosik was our reliability guru. Right after our program began moving from
building #1 to building #106, the company installed a gigantic IBM in building #1. They
set up a punch card station in the basement of building #106 for Gemini. The info was
given to an operator who punched the cards, which were then hand carried to building #1,
to be run when the aircraft folk would grant us time. GIGO [garbage-in-garbage-out]
was observed often. When Larry would give us a system, subsystem, or major
component reliability, he often got "booed" and was charged with GIGO. Good guys
with a bad message barely survive. Larry is a great guy. Some experiment sponsors
never believed the seriousness of safety, reliability, quality assurance, and
stowage/installation/ power allocations. Two come to mind were the electronic "whiz
bang’s" at MIT and Minnesota [sp] Universities. Again, I have always felt that the nine
and a half year's spent on the early manned space programs were the most meaningful
contributions of my life.
*** *** ***
12/22/2007
As I reflect on the many memories that I have of 9 1⁄2 years of events and people that I
worked with or for, many are blurred, and my attempt at recollection may be faulty. The
following trivia of people and events are totally random: GT4 and Ed Whites walk in
space. It was awesome, and I was at the Cape to watch. I thought I was walking in “high
cotton for a country boy.” Knowing that I had a small part in the design and building of
the “zip gun” was a little “heady.” Being involved with the activities for “project 76”, the
launching of GT7 and later launch of GT6, and the first rendezvous of manned
spacecraft. Shirra’s cool courage in shutting GT6 down and saving the mission. The
night that 9 of us were at pad 19 working on mission prep [I don’t remember the mission]
were trapped because a hungry ill-tempered cougar showed up. 5 guys were on the
elevator coming down; 4 of us were on the ground and ran like hell for the safety of the
work trailer. It took NASA security a couple of hours to find and shoot the cougar. The
courage and expert control of GT8 after undocking from the Agena. The problems with
the workstation on GT11. We added handholds and foot restraints for GT12. Buzz did
an outstanding job, and proved what an astronaut could do on an EVA and showed what
we needed to work on. I remember how upset a NASA inspector got because some tools
were purchased at Sears-Roebuck. Then there was the “angry alligator” Agena, that only
partially opened to expose the docking adapter on GT9. I have always felt that justified
my lack of confidence in those folk’s that I had from our first docking adapter meeting.
That brings to mind my first flight on a commercial airline, a TWA “connie” to LA, with
Marv Czarnick, for our first meeting on the docking adapter. This was also the first of
hundreds of trips I took. My second trip was 2 weeks later to LA on TWA on a 707. My
utter enjoyment of the success [generally] of the experiment’s that a group of us spent
countless hours on.
I apologize in advance for any people I may overlook, but here are memories of some of
them: Earl Robb and Ed Carmody for their help in solving problems that were unforeseen
or “just happened.” The unflappable Vern Trider in resolving GSE problems. And Ron
Moon for making experiment logistics work.
Thanks to the management skills of Cal Blattner and Ray Pepping, especially in
achieving an OK or sign-off on a plan when I went to Len Goren. Len’s first response to
me any time I walked into his office was “NO,” then with the Help of Cal or Ray, a
positive decision would evolve. Dave Norton and his crew did a great job on hatch
modification for Jim Lovell, without the aerodynamics folk’s having a nervous
breakdown. Thanks for the strong support from Dick Gillooly, in protecting me from my
department, because a lot of my “effort” was outside their purview, but under the
direction of management or NASA. It was a joy to be assigned to provide Company and
Project indoctrination [all concentrated into 2 week’s] to two “new-hire” Jim Fleming
and Ken Arnold. Clarence Ray [Zack] Carter will always be in my memories as a friend
and later a boss.
Randomly, good guy’s I worked with are: Bill merit [ECP], Carl Wintein [electrical],
Mick Gleason [GSE], Carl McCarthy [exp D4 & D7], Ted Steinmeyer for his help in
keeping Joe Hallermann from “throttling” me, John Hendron for his expertise in GSE for
experiment’s, Vern Bethat for his structural and mechanical expertise, Bob Lutz for the
effort on the work station, Hank Walden for electrical design help, Bob Sharp for crew
station and EVA mockup, and for John Yardley for his far-out thinking and rapid
problem resolution. I also have fond memories of working with Charlie Matthew’, Gus,
Ed, Buzz, Elliot and others in the astronaut group.