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.

  • p. 264 …We performed the P~e r etro Checklist well in advance of when it was supposed…
  • p. 267 …I set the event timer up well in advance of Carnarvon . At Carnarvon, I got the…
  • p. 273 …So we went through what we could in advance of T -5. The things we couldn…
  • p. 278 …You punched the SEP OAMS. We heard the bang. He followed wit h a SEP ELECTRIC…
  • p. 279 …advance. " So , I armed retro squibs , and we discussed whether or not to punch off the…
265
McDivitt
White
McDivitt
White
McDivitt
5. 5 TR- 5 Events
McDivitt
Well , not knowing exactly what I was doi ng with
the hand controller, you--I was making small
corrections .
That ' s the first time I'd heard that kind of a
sound.
We were getting it when we wer e chasing that
thing around , too--when we were chasing the
booster around .
You were thrusting again. I thought this was
the other one .
Yes , that ' s right . So we got through the TR-13
and TR-12 Checklis t s.
~e TR-13 and the TR- 12 Checklists really should
be grouped together--the preparat ion and the
OAMS retrofire.
Once more we started doing our checklist a little
early. Since we had the t i me there was no since
in wasting it and then rushing at the end. So
we went through what we could in advance of
T -5. The things we couldn't do or that didn't
R
need to be done in advance we waited for until
exactly TR-5 . I guess this is where Ed got the

Cases discussed

About this file

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.