In the months that followed, astronauts began dropping by McDonogh, first to watch, then to participate in simulations. Scott Carpenter tried it and realized it was exhausting to manipulate a pressurized glove. In his memoir, Mattingly quotes him complaining, "I can't bend my [expletive] finger anymore!"
Gene Cernan came in July 1966 and proved, to his relief, that the task he'd tried and failed to complete in orbit couldn't be done as designed. A "torqueless" Black and Decker wrench proved too big and bulky for the job astronauts were assigned. Mattingly's team warned that work planned for Gemini 10 also looked impossible, and the mission soon proved they were right.
With the final Gemini mission looming, spacecraft mock-ups were trucked in and squeezed through the McDonogh pool doors. They lugged in hoists, lights and generators, laid down pipes and cables. In September 1966, Buzz Aldrin flew in for NASA's first-ever pre-flight underwater training session, in advance of his Gemini 12 spacewalk.
"Aldrin went off to McDonogh and [later] had the most successful [spacewalk] in the Gemini program, practicing connections for different body restraints, handholds and footholds," said Charles, the historian.
When Aldrin later wrote about his lunar mission, he looked back on his training at McDonogh and said, "What we had done there secured the success of a spacewalk ... That day in Baltimore we were all full of a sense of accomplishment and pride."
And amid all the hubbub, the McDonogh kids still got in their swim time, mostly.
One day, Mattingly recalled, "a bunch of 10 and 12-year-olds" were scheduled to use the pool. But it was a crucial moment, and Mattingly's team and astronaut Gene Cernan needed the pool for eight more hours.
So Lamborn, the headmaster, asked if the boys could sit in the stands and watch. Mattingly agreed.
"I told Gene Cernan that there would be kids watching," he said. Then, "after he got into his pressure suit and while we were preparing the rest of the equipment, Gene went over to the stands, helmet in hand, and talked to the kids about space. I bet every kid in the stands that day will remember. It was most impressive."
Richard Working, a McDonogh math teacher and football coach at the time, remembers being there. And he recalls the kids were fascinated.
"They didn't know anything about weightlessness or going into space," he said. "They were bug-eyed."
