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 127 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.
121
White
McDivitt
White
McDivitt
overlay of the orbits, I thought was a real good
tool.
Very easy, yes .
Yery easy to use and I am sure glad we came up
with that .
I think also carrying pre-plotted orbits on the
· maps was also useful and stayed pretty- -
That ' s right . Right at the last second we decided
to take four maps that were glued back to back ao
we had two sheets . They were on a sticky- back
which made them reasonably thick and durable .
One of them had no orbits on it , one had one to
22 , another one had 22 to 44, and another one bad
44 to 66 . You could look through there and you
could get a quick reference of where you were going
to be at a certain time . The times did get off,
but you were only off a little bit .

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.