12 pages of Gordon Cooper’s handwritten notes for pre-flight activities and preparations for the Gemini 5 mission, which launched on August 21, 1965. The unsigned notes, annotated in pencil and ballpoint on sheets of notebook paper, 7.75 x 10.5 and 8.5 x 11, contain seven pages for “Station Keeping” and five pages for “Rendezvous.” The first topic, which lists MSC Branch Chief Paul Kramer (Crew Safety and Procedures), states on the first page: “Station Keeping is an unstable situation. All you can do is live with a certain limit cycle and live with it. Fighting it will use lots of fuel.” The balance of this section contains myriad equations and axes and/or coordinate planes, with the fourth page starting a “Rules for Station Keeping” list, which reads, in part: “1. Seek a position Line of site horizontal & in (behind or ahead) or normal (to side) to target orbital plane. 2. Separate in plane & out of plane maneuvers with priority to in plane (in plane is divergent – out of plane is cyclic).”
The second topic is headed “Rendezvous: STL – 11 July 1965,” and features an “Attendees” list to the upper right of the first page: “Pete, Gordo, [Charles A.] Jacobson, Mr. [Marvin R.] Czarnik, Buzz Aldrin, Dean Grimm.” Jacobson, Czarnik, William Murphy, Walter Haufler, and William E. Hayes helped with rendezvous procedures at MSC. This section, which contains reticle sketches and notes related to star and platform methods, relates to the Gemini V mission’s proposed practice rendezvous, which involved a ‘pod’ deployed from the spacecraft. When problems with the electrical supply arose, the crew was forced to switch to a simpler ‘phantom rendezvous,’ whereby the Gemini craft maneuvered to a predetermined position in space. In fine condition. Fascinating original documentation from the flight that set the stage for the first spacecraft-to-spacecraft rendezvous.
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