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…
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McDivitt
White
McDivitt
White
McDivitt
.CO~~FID[tqffAL
right arm lift up and I saw him pull his left one
up.
No, I didn't get my left one up. I made three
passes and I said to heck with it.
I thought you got it. I struggled with mine end
finally got it up. I had both of mine up, and
you went on and completed the checklist .
I knew Ed wanted me to get my D-ring out because
I was the guy that was going to have to bail us
out.
Again I'd come down with this big bag of stuff
resting on my legs up against the bottom of
the seat, and as we approached 35 000 feet, I
pulled this up in my lap, and just held it. We
had agreed that Jim would do the ejection if we
had to, and I would just take the ride. I
didn't W1stow my D-ring. I just sat there.
That 's why I made pretty sure that Jim got his
out.
After we got on the main, we went through and
turned off all the switches, just as we were
planning on doing it. I turned off all the
switches on the middle circuit breaker panel
except the ones on the last couple of rows. I

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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.