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.
“Gray”1 page
61 White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt €01~FtDcNfJA~ opposed on the center of the booster . And when the booster was in such a manner that I could see both of the lights, I could tell relative rates and I had an idea of how far away I was . Did you find this to be true too, Ed , or not? Well , I can' t honestly say I was looking at it with that feeling . Okay . Well , what I am saying is that it was difficult-- I want to hear what you are going to say. I 'm not sure what you ' re saying yet , It was difficult to tell how far I was away from it , at best , but when I had the booster in such a position that I could see both lights at the same time , I could tell by the distance between the lights whether I was close or far . Okay . I agree with that . And when I could see these lights flashing over a period of time , I could tell whether the distance between them was getting larger or smaller so that I knew i f I was closing or not . Unfortunately , becaus e the booster was tumbling in this scre,ry manner, I couldn't maneuver around ~he booster because it was tumbling so fast ; I was just trying CONFtDENftt\L
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.