Gemini 8 was the sixth manned spaceflight of NASA’s Gemini programme and was launched on March 16, 1966. Planned to be a three-day mission, the spacecraft, manned by astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott, was to rendezvous and dock with the Agena target vehicle that had launched earlier. However, a critical in-space system failure threatened the lives of the astronauts and forced them to abort the mission.
As a result, NASA technicians in Mission Control, Houston, cut the live feed being sent direct to Mr Armstrong’s family at home and later to the rest of the world on TV.
Mr Scott revealed during Altitude film’s upcoming documentary “Armstrong” how the terrifying events unfolded after the docking went wrong.
He recalled: “Neil said ‘turn the Agena off’, which I did, and he turned on the Gemini and everything stabilised for about four or five minutes.
“Then it started to turn, started to roll again.
“Murphy’s law says bad things happen at the worst possible time and in this case, we were out of radio contact.
“We got down to about 13 percent propellant and decided we had to get off the Agena, so I hit the undock switch.
“When we pulled off though we found out the problem was not the Agena, but actually the Gemini – then we started a very rapid roll rate.”
Rick Armstrong, the son of the first man to step on the moon, revealed how Mission Control then cut the radio feed to their house.
He said: “At that point, Mission Control turned the spot box off.
“That was something my mother was not happy about.
“She was not happy so she went over to Mission Control to find out what was going on.
“I would not have wanted to be the one to tell he she couldn’t go in, that would not have ended well.”
Janet Armstrong detailed her despair of not knowing what was going on during the same film.
She stated: “Things were just awful, they were spinning at a revolution a second.
“There was a very strong concern they would blackout and that would be it, it would be over.
“But I was refused entry.”
However, thanks to Mr Armstrong’s nerves of steel and expert flying knowledge, he managed to turn on the Re-entry Control System (RCS) and get the spacecraft back into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Mr Scott added: “We got down to no other option and Neil finally said ‘we got to activate the RCS’.
“He had to reach up to an overhead panel to get a hold of the switcher.
“That’s amazing really – physiologically – that in this high-speed roll he could turn his head up and hit the right switch.
“But he did and he stopped the roll.”
Directed by David Fairhead, “Armstrong” will be in UK and Irish cinemas on July 12, to celebrate 50 years since the first moon landing.
The film was made with the full support of Mr Armstrong’s family after his death in August 2012 and includes previously unseen footage of history’s most famous astronaut.
It also features his own words based on interviews, writings and speeches as well as interviews with his first wife and two sons.
