Why NASA Abandoned the Gemini Rogallo Wing
Splashdowns are iconic of the Apollo era. From the first suborbital Mercury flight, the image of a capsule hitting the water became synonymous with the triumphant end of a mission. But even though splashdowns became part of America’s identity of its space agency, they weren’t NASA’s favoured way to end a mission. When you consider the astronauts were among the most skilled test pilots in the country, it seems odd that they were passively pulled from the ocean like wet rats. Splashdowns came from the initial decision to pursue capsule-style spacecraft, but they turned out to be complicated, expensive, and dangerous. Between 1961 and 1965, NASA spent 165 million dollars — more than 2.1 billion adjusted for inflation — trying to land the second-generation Gemini spacecraft on a runway using the Rogallo Wing.
Capsule Considerations
In late 1958, when NASA was newly created and the United States was starting to plan its first human spaceflight program, it fell to the Space Task Group within NASA to figure out what form spacecraft would take. There were different options on the table. Some were aircraft-inspired options — an orbital variant of the rocket-powered X-15 was technologically within reach, and the one-man shuttle-like DynaSoar was also under development. On the other end of the aerodynamic spectrum were capsule-shaped…
