The Epitome of Cool: Neil Armstrong and David Scott, 1966

By Nancy Atkinson - June 13, 2013 at 3:16 PM UTC | Space Exploration

So, you've just endured a harrowing experience where your orbiting spacecraft has gone wildly out of control. You somehow -- while undergoing the incredible, vertigo-inducing G-forces of your spinning spacecraft -- figure out a plan, undock your spacecraft from another spacecraft and abort your original mission.

Six and a half orbits and ten hours and 44 minutes after you've thunderously launched into space, you violently re-enter Earth's atmosphere and splash down in a pitching ocean. Obviously, you have to throw up, and so does your crewmate. But there's just one air sickness bag.

But by the time the rescue crew has arrived you've donned your sunglasses and look as cool as a cucumber.

That's Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott's experience during the Gemini 8 mission.

The epitome of cool.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com