LAUNCHING PAD; ASTRONAUTS BEING DRESSED IN SPACE SUITS; CONTROL ROOM AND INSTRUMENTS; ASTRONAUTS BOARDING CAPSULE.




Initials GEM/O-POOL/JH/BB



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: THE NEXT PAIR OF AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS TO GO INTO SPACE, LIEUTENANT COLONEL THOMAS STAFFORD AND LIEUTENANT COMMANDER EUGENE CERNAN, WERE AT THE CENTRE OF A FULL-SCALE REHEARSAL OF NEXT WEEK'S GEMINI 9 BLAST-OFF FROM CAPE KENNEDY YESTERDAY (WEDNESDAY).

OFFICIALS AT CAPE KENNEDY SAID AFTER THE MOCK COUNTDOWN THAT IT HAD GONE OFF PERFECTLY. THE TWO ASTRONAUTS CLIMBED INTO THE SPACECRAFT MINUTES BEFORE AN ATLAS ROCKET WAS PUT THROUGH A SIMULATED LAUNCH TO PLACE A TARGET SATELLITE IN ORBIT.

MORE THAN AN HOUR LATER GEMINI 9'S TITAN ROCKET REACHED THE MOMENT OF BLAST-OFF WITHOUT ANY DELAYS OR FAULTS. WHEN THE REAL COUNTDOWN IS COMPLETED ON 17 MAY, THE TWO ASTRONAUTS WILL START A THREE-DAY MISSION THAT WILL INCLUDE A TWO-AND-A-HALF HOUR WALK IN SPACE BY LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER CERNAN. THE SPACE WALK WAS PLANNED FOR THE LAST GEMINI FLIGHT, BUT HAD TO BE ABANDONED WHEN A SUCCESSFUL DOCKING EXPERIMENT ENDED IN NEAR DISASTER.

STAFFORD AND CERNAN WILL ALSO ATTEMPT A DOCKING WITH AN AGENA TARGET SATELLITE BEFORE THE EXPERIMENTS OUTSIDE THE SPACE CRAFT ARE STARTED. THEN THEY WILL REHEARSE AN EMERGENCY APOLLO MOON-ORBIT RENDEZVOUS, THE FIRST PROJECT IN THE GEMINI SERIES OF FLIGHTS TO APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE AMERICAN PROGRAMME FOR PUTTING MEN ON THE MOON.