Science Past from the issue of October 20, 1962

U.S. NOW HAS CAPABILITY FOR TWIN SPACE SHOT  —  The United States now can equal the Soviet manned twin space shot, SCIENCE SERVICE learned at Cape Canaveral. The systems and power to do this are now available, J. Merritt, operations director of Project Mercury at Cape Canaveral, said. Although we do not have the vehicle or booster to keep two men up as long as the Russians did, we can launch two men into orbit at different intervals and return them to earth almost simultaneously…. The astronauts would be able to communicate with each other in space, and the return to earth could be coordinated just as the Russians did. The engineering ability was evident in the almost “bulls-eye” landing of Astronaut Walter M. Schirra.