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
188 McDivitt Wnite McDivitt €01\IFIDENfl~ l- EVA we went into free drifting flight . We powered down the platf orm and the computer, shut off the attitude indicator lights--we went through a complete power- down procedure . We were really trying to save bettery power , 0AMS fuel , and everything else we had . We went on a complete power-down, down the checklist, and we just didn ' t have anything on . And we stayed in this free drifting mode for about two days . That right , Ed? Closer to 2 1/2 days . Mostly for the first 2 1/2 days we were in a free dri fting mode . We didn ' t do the platform aline ment and the translation at around 8 : 10--8 : 20 in the flight plan . We did not obtain any booster star measurements . As a matter of fact, I'd like to comment on the booster-star sightings , or just the booster sightings . We saw the l ights of the booster definitely on the first pass as we were tracking it . The second pas~ RS Ed sai~ he saw them , and he said he was sure he saw them because they were flashing . I was pretty sure i: saw what he was talking about . However , this occurred just at sundown . Every other time at COtfftOE~TI~
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.