Documents / Official release
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.
White McDiYitt 13~IDE ►~llM. pretty straightforward. I think Pulse was the best mode on the spacecraft for the orbit phase . We were able to save all kinds of fuel, it worked fine, and it was just about what the doctor ordered . We didn't use the Horizon Scan Mode during about the first three days of flight, except for the second orbit when I think I \\18.S in Horizon Sca.n so that I could have the freedom to help Ed prepare for his EVA. The last day we used the Horizon Sca.n Mode, and I found it to be an excellent mode. There was only one case when it broke lock and didn ' t recover. Wasn't that it, F.d.? You've got it in the book . We've got in the book and we'll check on that . The Ho~izon Scan Mode worked essentially for 24 hours without any problem ~and I think it' s an excellent control mode, It seemed to be very economical on fuel . We were doing a lot of yawing around and right at sunrise a.nd sunset it seemed to get a l ittle nervous , especially if we had the horizon scanner pointed within about plus or minus 45 degrees of the sun. The moon didn ' t seem to affect it at all. I noticed that, occa sionally, we would ~et some thruster blips with the sun n&Q·tslfiO EtslltAIA ·
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.