Documents / Official release
This is a preliminary transcript of Part I of the Gemini 4 (GT-4) flight crew debriefing. The Spacecraft Operations Branch of NASA's Flight Crew Support Division prepared it on June 16, 1965, from recordings of the debriefing held aboard the USS Wasp on June 9, 1965. In it, astronauts McDivitt and White describe the mission from an operational viewpoint, covering countdown, powered flight, insertion, orbital operations, reentry, landing and recovery. According to the preface, visual sightings were left for a later part.
From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 Incident: 6/9/65, North Atlantic Ocean. This document is a preliminary transcript (Part I) derived from voice recordings of the Gemini 4 flight crew debriefing taken aboard the recovery ship, USS Wasp, on June 9, 1965. Astronaut Ed White recounts seeing “sparkles” during the flight.
“Harder”5 pages
122 McDivitt White That must have bee~ just about the time I told you to come back in . No, I would estimate this was about two-thirds of the way and about this time I was after pictures. I knew this was a part of the flight plan that I had, in my mind , fulfilled satisfactorilly. So I tried to get some pictures and this is where I really impar ted some velocities, trying to get away from the spacecraft into a position so I could take a picture. I went out to the end of my tether cord quite a few times doing this . I seemed like every time I would be completely 180 degrees to the spacecraft . I'd have beautiful views of the ground but I couldn ' t see the spacecraft. It was a definite mistake to mount the camera on the gun . That made it very difficult to use the camera . I had to point not only the camera but the gun with the long thrusters mounted out on the little arms. I 'd want to take a picture of an object like t he spacecraft, • and there were too many loos~ items to get tangled up in and block the camera . I know my tie-down strap was floating loose . I had left that out intentionally so that I could
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 340 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.