Preliminary Gemini 4 Crew Debriefing, Part II, 1965

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.

McDivitt
225Cet-«:IDE~~TIAL~
limitations on hitting the side of the spacecraft
and trying to make a sighting and losing the
object out of the upper window as you cranked
the periscope down to bring the star down to
the horizon.
In trying to accomplish the Air Force portion
of the experiment, we found ourselves completely
unable to do the daylight star-horizon measurement.
So, to get some insight into the operational use
of the sextant, we took a great number of star
to horizon measurements at night. They are in
the book in quite a bit of detail. As we mentioned
earlier, the helmet was an impediment to use with
the sextant, so on occasion we had to take the
helmet off. The greatest angle that we ca~ld
normally get was about 25 degrees between the
horizon and the stars, but on occasion we got up
to 30 degrees. This meant a certain alinement
of the spacecraft was necessary so that you
could get the largest piece of glass between
the star and the horizon and still get the