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.
“The Advance”5 pages
285 CONFtDENTl;ttt- I didn ' t think there would be any aerodynamics at 400 000 feet . But it was turned around 180 degrees and was perfectly stable with the whip antenna sticking out , which at that iime was up to the right . White Yes . McDivitt We were upside down. It sure was a funny look~ ing sight. White It sure was . It was really pretty. McDivitt And it was as stable as a rock and very slowly d:t'ifting behind us . As a matter of fact , for a while I thought that our opening velocities were too slow, and I thought it would just come back and hit us . But , it just stayed out there, a nd we started our rolling reentry there . We were coming on down and we were rolling around and before I got any noticeable g ' s at all--Isn' t that right--before we got any notice able g ' s it s t arted burning? White Okay. We saw the reddish pink layer come a round the spacecraft-- McDivitt Well, didn ' t we see the retropack start burning before the- - ? -CONFtDENllM
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.