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UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995
1966-Contin ued
spent over 70 hours in space, had docked with an
Agena satellite and Collins had made a space stand
and a space walk.
25 August Hornet recovered the second unmanned
space craft of the Apollo series after its suborbital
flight about 500 miles southeast of Wake Island.
3 September Naval Air Test Center pilots completed
a 2 day shipboard suitability trial of the RH-3A heli-
copter minesweeper aboard Ozark (MCS 2) on the
open sea. This trial completed the Center's evaluation
of the helicopter for the minesweeper role. The fol-
lowing year the ship and a helicopter detachment
from newly established HC-6 were utilized in a mine
countermeasures development and training program
in the Atlantic Fleet and a detachment from HC-7 was
prepared for training and operation on Catskill (MCS
1) in the Pacific.
8 September An A-3A Skywarrior, equipped with a
Phoenix missile and its control system, located,
locked on at long range and launched the missile
scoring an intercept on a jet target drone. The event
occurred over the Navy Pacific Missile Range near
San Nicolas Island. Although the Phoenix had been
launched successfully before, this was the first full
scale test employing all functions of the missile con-
trol system.
..
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15 September A helicopter assigned to HS-3 from
Guam recovered Gemini II astronauts Charles Conrad
and Richard Gordon at sea 700 miles off Cape
Kennedy, Fla. The recovery marked the end of a
three-day mission in space in which the astronauts
completed several dockings with an Agena satellite,
established a new altitude record of over 850 miles
and Gordon made a walk in space.
16 September Helicopters from Oriskany rescued
the entire crew of 44 men from the British merchant
ship August Moon as she was breaking up in heavy
seas on Pratas Reef 175 miles southeast of Hong Kong.
26 October Fire broke out on the hangar deck of
Oriskany while operating in the South China Sea off
Vietnam, resulting in the loss of 44 officers and men.
Heroic efforts by the crew against great odds prevent-
ed greater loss of life and damage to the ship.
8 November The Chief of Naval Operations
approved a reorganization of the Naval Air Reserve
involving the disestablishment of all Air Wing Staffs
and establishing in place of each an administrative
unit titled Naval Air Reserve Staff and a training unit
titled Naval Air Reserve Division (Fleet Air).
15 November Wasp made the last recovery of the
Gemini program, picking up astronauts James A.

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