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.
14 White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt t:Ol-<IFIDEt'4T IAt bridge of my nose on down . I had a tremendous amount of reflection inside the helmet, and I had a great amount of difficulty seeing the instru- ment panel . As a matter of fact, I'm not sure I could have seen the instrument panel at all . ~ose first few seconds there are extremely cri tical on launch. You have to be able to see those tank pressure sages . We ought to keep this in mind for those late afternoon launches . That is a problem , but the g loads are so small at this time you could a l most forget ab1ut look ing up . Did I fly like this for awhile during l aunch? I don't think so but you could have, The g load is so small. I'm not sure whether I did or not. "'his is what we had to do during Wet Mock. We had to put our hand up and cover the window to look down at our instruments to see them , I 'm not sure I didn ' t launch that way . I wouldn't be surprised if you did . I don't think I launched that way, but as we tilted over and we got in the sun, I think I put my hand up for awhile . COMftDEl'1 I IAI.
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.