Seat, Ejection, Gemini
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Object Details
- Manufacturer
- Weber Aircraft Corp.
- Summary
- Unlike the Mercury and Apollo spacecraft, which had rocket-powered "escape towers" to pull the capsule away from the booster in an emergency, the two-man Gemini used ejection seats to allow the astronauts to escape. This ejection seat is a spare that has been installed in the Gemini 3 spacecraft. Gemini 3 carried astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom and John Young on the first manned flight of Project Gemini on March 23, 1965.
- These ejections seats had to function from zero velocity, during an ejection from the spacecraft while sitting on the launch pad, up to 100,000 ft. and a velocity of many times the speed of sound. A rocket motor made by Rocket Power, Inc., of Mesa, Arizona, powered the ejection seat, which was made by Weber Aircraft of Burbank, California.
- The Gemini spacecraft manufacturer, McDonnell, gave this seat to the Smithsonian in 1970.
- Credit Line
- Transferred from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through the McDonnell-Douglas Corporation
- Inventory Number
- A19710058000
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- SPACECRAFT-Crewed-Life Support
- Materials
- aluminum?
- Dimensions
- 3-D: 55.9 x 139.7cm (22 x 55 in.)
- Country of Origin
- United States of America
- See more items in
- National Air and Space Museum Collection
- National Air and Space Museum
- Record ID
- nasm_A19710058000
- Metadata Usage (text)
- Not determined
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv96e1fec6e-5ec2-4b4d-9661-70ae74cb8379
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