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.
“Harder”5 pages
326 ~O 1\1 FIDEl~TIM and 40 minutes . To me it was very clear . McDivitt It took Ed a long time to decide-- about two or three milliseconds . White That ' s right . I felt that I knew my buddy well enough and made the decision that we ' d take the heliocopter pickup . I saw that he was actually on the radio at the time and he rogered the decision . So we waited for the heliocopter pickup . 7 , 8 Recovery Force Personnel McDivitt White McDivitt We had good communications with the recovery forces . They were on our frequency . We heard all the transmissions that were going back and forth . Shoot , we probabl y knew more about the recovery than anybody else around . They got the flotation collar in the water in a hurry and came over and put it right on . I saw this thing around the spacecraft and I saw it start inflating. I was really elated when I saw that ,- t hing pumping up . I had the f i rst contact with the real live man. That ' s right . He looked in Ed ' s window to see if we were alive , I guess . C0~4FIDEt\JTIAt
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.