Found some fascinating film on how the early Gemini spacecraft were controlled during re-entry. I had always wondered about this; with only the big blob of earth as a reference and no up/down and no fixed point in space, how did they ever manage to hit the right spot? This shows how. What surprised me the most was directional change to hit the target spot was achieved basically with weight-shift! When you're on target the whole capsule rotates keeping it on course. When it goes off the rate of rotation is varied to move the ship in one direction or another. Pretty amazing.
There is a wealth of aviation related stuff on this youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCddem5RlB3bQe99wyY49g0g
There is a wealth of aviation related stuff on this youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCddem5RlB3bQe99wyY49g0g
Last edited by a moderator:
