Documents / Official release

Preliminary Gemini 4 Crew Debriefing, Part II, 1965

National Aeronautics and Space Administration · 1965-06-09 · 290 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is a preliminary transcript of Part II of the Gemini 4 (GT-4) flight crew debriefing, prepared by NASA's Spacecraft Operations Branch, Flight Crew Support Division, and dated June 18, 1965. The debriefing began aboard the recovery ship USS Wasp and ended at the Manned Spacecraft Center. In it, astronauts McDivitt and White discuss how the spacecraft systems performed, including the platform, OAMS, RCS and control modes. They also cover operational checks, visual sightings, experiments, mission planning and training, and give recommendations for future crews.

From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 Incident: 6/9/65, North Atlantic Ocean. This document is a preliminary transcript (Part II) derived from voice recordings of the Gemini 4 flight crew debriefing taken aboard the recovery ship, USS Wasp, on June 9, 1965. Part II of this document contains the “Visual Sightings” section of the debriefing (pages 196-224), where astronauts James McDivitt and Edward White describe their observations while aboard the spacecraft.

Open the PDF at page 109 Original source ↗

“Nevers”40 pages

  • p. 7 …didn ' t do it BEF at all, did we? We never did cage in BEF.
  • p. 8 …I felt--although I never did this--that if I could do that and then roll…
  • p. 13 …down to 70 percent indicated and we never got below 50 percent in four days. I…
  • p. 20 …toward the hori zon scanner although we never got an unlock light . We wouldn ' t get…
  • p. 29 …It never did go up except when we'd go to o High Rate, when it…
  • p. 51 …We never really did get it up over 60 percent. That seemed to be where it…
  • p. 53 …I would never suggest that anyone vent that cabin again without being fully suit ed. I…
  • p. 54 …That's something we never had 2 touched. It was a eage that we should have…
  • p. 59 …what he was talking about because we never needed them again . I think, again , I am…
  • p. 62 …Yes, it never got off zero. Okay, the coolant- the radiator operation config- uration--I don…
  • p. 63 McDivitt White never had to come off it again . We didn ' t get any abnormal operation…
  • p. 70 …We never had to use the Evaporator Fill Mode . The Flush Mode,or the waste ·management…
  • p. 110 …times to update that thing, and I never got up with it any one of those…
  • p. 111 …and the 88- hour times and I never even read what it said . I didn't…
  • p. 113 …My Omega wrist wat ch that I had set on GMT never lost a second, except…
  • p. 131 …We never did get them back there. There was no possibility to put them back there…
  • p. 135 …I have a comment on the other little trash bag , I never used it . Neither did…
  • p. 136 …I never took my life vest off my r estraint harness the whole time. It wasn…
  • p. 143 …I never did get a:ny shrimp. Boy, I bet it was in that last day…
  • p. 144 …wiggle around for about five hours,but never did I sleep more than two hours . You…
  • p. 145 …First of all we always fooled around and never really got the sleep that we wanted…
  • p. 162 …This is s~rmething that we really never got to do. The original 243 ~argets were…
  • p. 165 …in such a manner that the gunsight never deviated from the target by more than a…
  • p. 169 …Now I ' d never seen the Basra Airfield before ·I t r ied to take thi…
  • p. 170 …Now if you have never been there on t he ground and don't know what…
  • p. 188 …toward the sun, it never really lost lock and it certainly never l ost control . The…
  • p. 200 …Although I never saw any individual houses , I could see an industrial area with what looked…
  • p. 213 …Well , I could never see that . All I could see was the glow as it came…
  • p. 214 …I never saw one above us , did you? No . Okay cloud coverage-- There was a lot…
  • p. 222 …I never did see the drogue dereef. I couldn't see up to the top to…
  • p. 227 …t wind up too well, but it never did jam up completely. I guess that sort…
  • p. 235 …We changed the batteries and bulbs from the cross-hairs and never could get
  • p. 253 …We never really got it the "4''. configuration. The one down at the Cape took too…
  • p. 263 …We never did fly reentries OOi'IFIO EttlJiA ~ ~.
  • p. 266 …Another thi ng that I 'll,for the life of me , never understand is wher e…
  • p. 271 …ing and the station-keeping that we never r eally got a chance to perform in…
  • p. 273 …at all the time, because you can never go out at night and look at al…
  • p. 276 …We never had any delay due to these x-rays . We certainly all knew how to…
  • p. 279 …people giving this information in D- 6 never were with it--as far as get t…
  • p. 288 …I t hink to try to conclude them all , we'd never get them.
McDivitt
White
a little marginal in some cases . I had no diffi
culty in reading the des i gnations on the switch
breaker panels. I think they were lighted ade
quately also. I'm not going to say they're
lighted well , because I don ' t think the lighting
is real good in the spacecraft. The water
management panel isn ' t lighted properl y . I ' m
not sure we reall y have to have it l i ghted too
well . The utility lights, I t hink,as they are
now.,are very close to being useless . It's like
taking a match and trying to use it to find your
way around . It doesn ' t provide enough light .
From time to time I would have liked to have had
a light which had a little stronger output of
light available,~ so that I coul d-- I several times
wanted to look behind my seat for things at night
and I ' d like to look down into the area in the
water management panel light.
Yes , I think probably the wattage on those bulbs
should go up an order of magnitude to make them
effective.
You use it so seldom that it wouldn ' t be a big
power use. You ' d only use it when you needed it ,

Cases discussed

About this file

Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 290 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.