Preview
Creation Date
4-22-1963
Description
UP IN THE AIR, in more ways than one. The expressions of these three astronauts mirror the strangeness of their sensations as their feet rise from the floor of an Air Force C-135 during weightlessness orientation at Wright Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio. The plane, specifically padded inside, dives to gain speed, climbs sharply and dives again. At the top of the parabolic curve at the end of the climb, occupants experience about 60 seconds of weightlessness. Left to right are Astronauts Thomas Stafford, Frank Borman, and Jomes Lovell, three of the astronauts chosen last September for programs beyond Mercury. All nine of the "new" astronauts got a chance to experience weightlessness in a four-day trip to Wright-Patterson April 22-25, when they were taken aloft in the special plane in groups of three. The nine also experimented with a space manuevering unit, a back pack designed to propel them.
Keywords
Thomas Stafford, Frank Borman, James Lovell, Stafford, Borman, Lovell, Gemini, weightlessness, Wright-Patterson