I was reading some of Walt Brown's book just now and came across the following statement.
"As another example, in 1965 astronaut James McDivitt tried to catch up (rendezvous) with an object orbiting far ahead of him. He instinctively increased his speed. However, this added speed moved his orbit higher and farther from Earth where gravity is weaker and orbital velocities are slower. Thus, he fell farther behind his target. Had he temporarily slowed down, he would have changed his orbit, lost altitude, sped up, and traveled a shorter route. Only by slowing down could he catch up—essentially taking a “shortcut.” "
I find that a very odd and puzzling statement. As a highly trained astronaut with a large ground crew to guide him, McDivitt would not likely have been flying by instinct. He and his ground crew would have calculated the course necessary to catch up with the object. I have to wonder. Did Brown repeat an urban myth here or could he made up the story by distorting some writer's description of what would have happened if McDivitt did what Brown said he did?
Rev]