If you are ever able to make it to the KSC visitor complex in Cape Canaveral they have mock-ups of both the Gemini and earlier Mercury capsules you can get in as a size reference. They are both incredibly tight. It's amazing during Gemini 7 they spent 14 days crammed in the capsule testing systems, doing EVA activity along with normal human activity (eating, sleeping, bodily functions). All while being seconds from death at any time if things go wrong. These early astronauts were men of a different caliber.

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KineticLensman 6 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> They are both incredibly tight.

ISTR an astronaut saying that you didn't 'get into' a Mercury capsule, instead you 'put it on'.

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542458 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The Todd Miller Apollo 13 documentary (which is phenomenal, it's entirely file footage but assembled better than most blockbusters) has these bits during launch/landing where they overlay the three astronaut's heart rates with the footage. My big takeaway from that was that they were incredibly unflappable, almost to an absurd degree.

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zettabomb an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I think you mean Apollo 11, Apollo 13 was the dramatization with Tom Hanks. Both excellent movies in their own ways.

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kouru225 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Not as good as For All Mankind (the 1989 documentary) IMO! Link: https://youtu.be/JD2W4CZbH9U?si=WvdYuLnoe49_tV0l

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steve1977 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Not to take away from their achievement, but do we know if there were drugs involved?

	▲	roryirvine 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Not for takeoff. Apollo astronauts used barbituates to help sleep, and scopolamine with dextroamphetamine during re-entry. Unsurprisingly the average HR during re-entry was rather higher than at launch! (source: https://space.stackexchange.com/a/31987 ) Gemini would likely have been similar, save for using Cyclizine during re-entry rather than scopolamine/dextroamphetamine. Detailed info about the Apollo medkit: http://heroicrelics.org/info/csm/apollo-medical-kit.html Less-detailed history of NASA medkits, mentioning Gemini: https://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/spaceflight/space-medici...

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solotronics an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

For anybody near DFW the Apollo 7 Command Module is on display at the Frontiers of Flight museum at Dallas Love Field. Its pretty amazing to see it in person and think about the engineering involved. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_7#/media/File:Apollo_7_...