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.

34
3,1 Post- SECO
McDivitt
White
3.0 INSERTION
Yes . There was a Post-SECO. In the period be
tween SEX:!O and SECO + 20 seconds, I unstowed the
maneuver controller. I don ' t know where our
attitudes were. They were the same as they were
a t SEX::O , and it was about 20 degrees pitch-down,
wasn ' t it? The rates during this period were on
the order of less than a half a degree/s econd.
We really had a period of from SECO to SECO + 30 .
So, duri ng this time I actually fired the trans
lations thrusters at least two times in one axis
to kill off the rate in t hat axis, and I think it
was probably the booster yaw or spacecraft pitch
where I act ually fired the U,rusters once or
twice to bring the rates back . It might have
been the other way around. But, we didn't jetti
son the fairings then . I did unstow the maneuver
controller and the attitude was the booster burn
out attitude and the rates were very low, less
than a half a degr ee/second .
I think we mentioned prior to this
time the feeling that we came off a little half-
(Q~~IQFNTIAL

Cases discussed

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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.