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. 155 …We came across Southern California, and I could see the Salton Sea. I didn ' t track…
  • p. 157 …We came across Southern California, and I could see the Salton Sea. I didn ' t track…
  • p. 161 …Th8 Dead Sea was a good l~cation, and actually the city itself was located at…
  • p. 163 …I )icked np the Salton Sea and El Centro , just below the Sal ton Sea, and…
  • p. 164 156 River, which should ::>e a few miles to the east of the Salton Sea. There…
  • p. 167 …The local l andmarks were the Mediterranean on one side , the Red Sea on the other…
  • p. 168 …up the Red Sea, picked up the Suez Canal between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean…
  • p. 202 …Pretty soon I found the Red Sea about 30 degrees below the horizon or maybe a…
  • p. 223 …I could see the sea dye marker in the water. I could see the parachute in…
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189
McDivitt
White
McDivitt
definitely see the rotation of the booster and
spacecraft combination. As we continued on up,
I was watching within the spacecraft and outside,
also. I could see the pitch program initiated .
I could hear Jim call it out, and I could
actually see it on my instruments and also see
it out the window. BECO's the next topic.
Why don't you go through that . I think I just
looked out one time to see the horizon for just
a second . Why don ' t you go through the rest of
those there and read them off?
Okay, at BECO I was looking in also . I was
waiting for the staging and I had my attention
inside , and I didn ' t see the big sheet ·of •
flame that John and Gus described coming from
around the separation of the first stage. So,
there wasn't anything other than the. normal feel
ing of the separation. As far as :'visual aight
ingt- were concerned, I didn ' t see anything else
at staging. As we started to nose over, I saw
the horizon coming up and I called that out to
Jim.
I think that might have been ~hen I looked out,
I
but Im not really sure I could see anything at
COt-4FIDE~ ◄ TIAL

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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.