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.

  • p. 166 …So ,the next target I had was Cairo -- Cairo Int ernational Airport . Now , we'd been…
  • p. 167 this , and I had l ooked down to find Cairo. I think we had had an…
  • p. 169 …I t hink that on the tracking tasks on Yuma, Cairo, and Basr a, I managed…
  • p. 202 …We had trouble when we came to El Paso in finding it, and Cairo blended right…
this , and I had l ooked down to find Cairo. I
think we had had an Apollo Landmark or D- 6
type of thing ,where we were supposed to
loolc down and just acquire the target, but not
actually track it or take any pictures. When
we did come by, we coul d actually look down and
find the city of Cairo the first time we came
by. Later I found the Cairo Airfiel d , and Ed
and I were discussing Cairo Airfield and
Alexandria Airfield. We both had one in sight .
When I picked up the Cairo Airfield(I was told
to pick up the Cairo Airfield),it had all the
ingredients that I think is necessary. I had
seen it beforE . I knew where it was with respect
to the local landmark. The local l andmarks
were the Mediterranean on one side , the Red
Sea on the other side , the Suez Canal connecting
these two l arge bodies of water , and a river
leading f rom near the Suez Canal over toward
the city and the airfiel d . Then. knowing the
position of the airfield with respect to these
landmarks ,since I 1 d al ready seen it , I came in
over North Af rica along the Mediterranean Coast
with no pl atf orm on, just in Pulse Mode, no

Cases discussed

About this file

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