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.
McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt GO~~FID9-~llA~L- 317 noticed the acrid smell that we were to have for the rest of the time we were out in the water. On the ECS system I could actually feel the relief that the pumps and the snorke1-open position were giving us . It did provide some flow. I really didn ' t think tmt the heat was oppressively hot, to tell the truth . No, neither did I. It vJS.S uncomfortably warm--I'll put it that way- and very stuffy, but I wouldn't say it was over bearingly hot. It wasn't as hot as I thought it was going to be in the spacecraft. I thought the worst thing about the whole thing was the smell. Whatever was burning later was the heat shield, I guess, because I went out and smelled the spacecraft later on when I was onboard· the carrier, and it smelled the same way. This terribly nauseating acrid smell was still all over the spacecraft, and it seemed to be worse at the heat shield. So I assume that's what we were smelling inside, How was the control, Jim? Spacecraft control in the water is lousy! I couldn't take out the motions. The rates were terribl e •co1qflf)fN·l~A-L-
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.