Gemini Speeds to Splashdown

June 6, 1965 - The Gemini 4 spacecraft raced easily around the Earth tonight, holding closely to its split-second schedule, with astronauts James McDivitt and Ed White preparing for the fiery reentry into the atmosphere early tomorrow afternoon.

At 12:44 p.m. New York time, the spacemen will touch off an “OAMS burn.” This is space jargon for “orbital attitude and maneuver system retrograde maneuver.” It means the astronauts will fire the small-thrust rockets which will force the spacecraft downward into a reentry trajectory.

At 12:56 p.m., from this new path, the Gemini 4 retrorockets will be fired, braking the craft violently and pitching it steeply into the atmosphere.

The craft is expected to drop to a parachute landing in the Atlantic, 400 miles south of Bermuda, at 1:14 p.m.

In the third day of the historic 98-hour mission, breaking all American records for manned spaceflight and closing on the 119-hour mark set by the Russians, Gemini 4 and its two-man crew were performing so excellently that flight director Chris Kraft in Houston canceled a scheduled adjustment in the orbit path.

McDivitt and White are to be kept aboard the carrier Wasp for three days for debriefing and medical examination, then flown to Houston for a televised press conference, probably Friday.

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