Documents / Official release

Preliminary Gemini 4 Crew Debriefing, Part I, 1965

National Aeronautics and Space Administration · 1965-06-09 · 340 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

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“Nevers”46 pages

  • p. 20 …It shook the whole spacecraft--did you notice how it never came up straight? The spacecraft…
  • p. 30 …There was never any doubt in my mind that they were going to stay up there…
  • p. 33 …It never really did decrease. It stayed up around 45 or 50 psi, and we need…
  • p. 44 …I never had any problem there . Shortly thereafter they called up and told us we i…
  • p. 46 …I could see the fairing over the horizon scanner go, but I never did see the…
  • p. 50 …I might comment that I never did put my safety pin in . I never put the…
  • p. 51 43 White I know , you never have been particularl y too hot on that . McDi vitt…
  • p. 52 …I never did get one of mine in satisfactorily at this time , so I think we…
  • p. 71 …And then for a long, long, long period of time after that I never
  • p. 72 …And I never really got the ~itAL
  • p. 82 …You see we never got a chance to do a rendezvous . We never rendezvoused with it…
  • p. 83 …I never saw another thing out the window until we were gone and until the sun…
  • p. 84 …40 to 50 degrees/second-- but it never got any higher , at least the best we…
  • p. 86 …that I hoped was zero,but I never got the spacecraft alined to see that it…
  • p. 87 …So, I never did get the platform alined . I did not have time . I got it…
  • p. 91 …I never really ea..11e to a posi tio:1. to try to ni1ll all these…
  • p. 105 …We never e ·.ren got on the .;·_e press system, di.d we? Yes , I believe…
  • p. 110 …We never got down to a vacuum and even though we had a cabin pressure of…
  • p. 131 …But I never got the picture that I was after . I wanted to get a picture…
  • p. 132 …He couldn ' t see the camera so he never really did tell me which way to…
  • p. 134 …We'd have never gotten to the kleenex at t hat time , but I think we…
  • p. 157 …It really wasn ' t closed far enough because you never did get those dogs out until…
  • p. 163 …because I had the feeling that I never had been confident that that • attachment nor the…
  • p. 170 …As you know, Jim, I have never worn sunglasses very much , and I didn't n…
  • p. 171 …I never did see any need for the little lexion visor . That's exactly the point…
  • p. 176 …time we were out the the temperature never changed . I don ' t remember looking ~t the…
  • p. 180 …I never reaEy had a good co.!ltact with the adapter back there . Just as -:,.r…
  • p. 189 …like that beca~1se ;rou I d never get so far away that you're in…
  • p. 197 …But, you know never flickered . It flickered . I watched it as it flickered. It flickered all…
  • p. 202 …take a picture of it but I never drifted around so I could see it . I…
  • p. 207 …them a couple of times , but I never did . By the time I would get the…
  • p. 208 …I went back and checked it and I never did get the plot . I went on…
  • p. 230 …We tried to make a tracking pass on El Paso International Airport, and we never even…
  • p. 233 …I never set it . I never checked elapsed time or anything. It could have been off…
  • p. 238 …I'd noticed that the gage went up and down before, but it never had gone…
  • p. 243 …We never did take any 16 mm pho tos of the plumes . Before you went to…
  • p. 253 …at my fingertips right then, or I never would have turned the thing off. Okay, I…
  • p. 279 …I never saw them at all . I could clearly see the t wo pumps together on…
  • p. 282 …There are four distinct pushes, and I never felt a pause between any one of them…
  • p. 284 …As far as I could see, it never deviated more than a degree from where I…
  • p. 295 …Did you ever see it tumbl e? No , never did . Okay. It was behind us and…
  • p. 302 …Then the yaw needle drifted on out and it looked to me like it never got…
  • p. 306 …I never could tell whether the thing dereefed or not. I had a lot of goop…
  • p. 322 …didn ' t put my drogue mortar pins in until I was getting out , and I never…
  • p. 329 White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt White 321<IFIOEmr~r then, we never would have gotcen…
  • p. 337 329 I never knew they were so stable . McDivitt Yes . He must have had a good…
6
White
McDi vitt
think CAP COM, 'alone, would have been sufficient .
One further comment , I had to turn my ·11HF volume
all the way up to hear anybody . I was at max .
There we were sitting right on the pad , talking
to a gu:y two miles away, and there I was with the
volume full up . It didn ' t give me much confi
dence as to reception I was going to get when I
was 200 miles away , or three or four or five
hundred miles away . I thought that the volume
control on the radio was inadequate.
We were wondering what we were going to have when
we got up a hundred miles .
That's right. At max volume we didn't have enough
and at minimum volume it didn't shut it off. We
will cover this later.
1.3 Crew Participation and Countdown
McDivitt I think it was just about right . I don' t think
we were over worked and I think we had enough to
do to keep us busy.
White Actually, all we really made was a check of
switches . There wasn ' t really too much else .
Having the back-up crew run that midcount was the
the right solution. I wouldn't have wanted to
participate in anymore of t he countdown than I
-COt<JFtDEt'4flJ<l

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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 340 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.