Gemini VIII Painting

This painting shows Gemini VIII astronauts David Scott and Neil Armstrong approaching their rocket just before launch on March 16,1966. This mission was the first rendezvous of two U.S. spacecraft in orbit. The second U.S. Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) or spacewalk (see my painting of the first by Capt. Ed White) was also scheduled but it had to be scrapped after trouble with the docking maneuver. After docking their spacecraft with the unmanned Aegean craft as planned, Armstrong and Scott noticed they were rotating unexpectedly. Because they were moving in orbit to the backside of the Earth and out of radio contact with the ground, they knew they had to disconnect from the Aegean. Amstrong had to first stop the rotation using retro rockets so that Scott could complete the undocking procedure. After some struggle they finally got disconnected only to find the rotation increased greatly - about 270 degrees per second. At this point NASA turned off the "squawk box" the men's families were listening to back home. Things did not look good. Armstrong kept a cool head and shut down the rocket system that was having the leak and used a different system to stabilize the rotation. That used fuel needed for their re-entry to Earth's atmosphere so they had to scrap the rest of the mission, landing in the Pacific instead of the Atlanitic as planned and be picked up by a backup Navy crew. The Navy frogmen and astronauts all got sick during heavy waves after splashdown but luckily the men returned safely to Earth. I believe Armstrong was selected to be the first person to set foot on the moon partially because of the calm under stress he demonstrated on Gemini VIII. I'm happy with the swinging of Amstrong's hand as painted on canvas here in acrylic as well as the gleaming bright American pride and excitement for taking pioneering steps in space exploration.