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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…
219cQ ~~ Fl DDtTIAt
McDivitt No, I don't have any comments. I think we
logged the time and the weather along the route,
such as it was, and we got all that into the book.
11. 2 ~!ic Terrain and Weather Photography (S-5 and S-6)
McDivitt
White
McDivitt
White
I think we had a lot of unusual and significant
subject matter, and it's all in the pictures. We
had one camera that wouldn't wind the film too
easily, but other equipment operated fine. We
didn't get the data reviewed properly--too late.
And we used the voice recorder as often as we
could record. I don't believe we have all of
this S-5 and S-6 photography recorded. I
think ss we go over them, tho"Ugh; .the ones we
didn't record will be pretty obvious .
Yee, I think that those two experiments are
really in the photographs. The Hasselblad
camera operated fine except we had one magazine
that didn't wind up too well, but it never did
jam up completely. I guess that sort of covers
it. Wouldn't you say, Ed?
I would too. All the data that we got for it
is recorded in our data book. Let's see
Simple Navigation with the Sextant. Ha.! D-9.
11.3 Simple Navigation with the Sextant
McDivitt I ~ we might as well cover it.
.-,~~fJOa~TIAb

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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.