Gemini 12 capsule moved to Adler Planetarium in Chicago

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Gemini 12 capsule docks at Adler

April 11, 2006

Chicago Sun-Times
BY ANDREW HERRMANN Staff Reporter

Astronaut James Lovell made famous the phrase "Houston, we have a
problem.'' That was during the near-disastrous Apollo 13 mission,
celebrated in a best-selling book and hit film.

On Monday? No problem, Chicago.

Another space ship commanded by Lovell -- the Gemini 12 capsule -- was
carefully lifted by crane from the back of a truck and gingerly slid
through the doors of the Adler Planetarium.

"If it had been a windy day, we would have been in trouble,'' said
Adler president Paul Knappenberger.

On a beautiful spring morning, the craft that roared into the heavens
some 40 years ago landed safely in a new and, Adler officials hope,
long-term home.

Lovell, who lives on the North Shore, has become something of a living
logo for the Adler as it tries to broaden its appeal from planets to
people -- specifically, space heroes. The 4,500-pound capsule will be
combined with other Lovell artifacts to serve as a centerpiece for a
new exhibit on man's efforts -- past and future -- to reach the moon.

Ship in disrepair at NASA museum

As Lovell tells it, the capsule was a forlorn and mostly ignored
artifact at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. "No one was
even looking at it anymore,'' said Lovell, who helped secure a
long-term loan of the craft to the Adler.

But first, Gemini 12 needed some restoration. For that, officials
turned to the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, which has become
something of a fix-it shop for old spaceships, having refurbished a
handful of NASA craft. During the last six months, the capsule was
cleaned, and a couple dozen parts -- such as a joystick used to control
the ship -- were tracked down in government warehouses and reunited
with Gemini 12.

The outside was corroded, said Cosmosphere technology director Jack
Graber -- temperatures had reached some 8,000 degrees when it
re-entered the atmosphere on Nov. 15, 1966. Gases had also built up
inside the craft -- some from decaying parts, some from moisture left
behind by Lovell and partner "Buzz" Aldrin, who shared 94 hours inside.

As was typical of the thinking at the time, preservationists had
wrapped the capsule in plexiglass, which may have kept fingerprints off
it, but also accelerated deterioration, Graber said.

For the team of four restoration experts, "It took a little bit of
work,'' Graber said. Knappenberger put the tab at between $30,000 and
$40,000.

The capsule looks well-worn, and that's the idea. Rather than restore
it to the original, pre-flight condition, Adler officials wanted it to
look as it did when it was plucked from the Atlantic in 1966.

'Bridge' to Apollo missions

"That's the true spacecraft,'' said Lovell, now 78. "If we polished it
up to look like it just rolled out of the factory, we couldn't tell the
story.''

Gemini 12 was the final effort in the two-man missions. The Gemini goal
was to prepare for moon launches by learning how to maneuver spacecraft
in orbit and by rendezvousing and docking with other vehicles.

Mid-1960s news accounts, reflecting America's impatience with stepping
onto the moon, wondered why NASA was even bothering with Gemini 12.
Aldrin took a two-hour spacewalk, Gemini 12 docked with a satellite and
a dozen scientific experiments were conducted. Lovell called the
mission part of the "bridge'' to Apollo moon missions.

Today, Lovell, who was also part of the crew of Gemini 7 and Apollo 8,
seems amazed that this car-sized tin can carried him 1.6 million miles.
"It is rather small,'' he said.

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Photo Caption with article:

Adler Planetarium president Paul Knappenberger (standing, right)
follows Monday as workers wheel the Gemini 12 spacecraft into the
planetarium for a new exhibit on man's quest for the moon. The first
gallery of that exhibit, including the capsule, is set to open in July.
The entire exhibit is scheduled to be dedicated on Nov. 11, the 40th
anniversary of Gemini 12. North Shore resident and former astronaut Jim
Lovell helped secure the spaceship for the Adler.

-----

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