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.

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McDivitt
White
McDivitt
White
McDivitt
White
McDiv.itt
Let me ask you a question?
Yes.
When you turned on the RCS heaters , did you turn
on the heater s on both r ings , or did you turn on
the RCS Heater Switch and then turn off the cir cui t
breaker on the ot her ring?
I turned the heaters on and then I checked to see
which ring it was that was ac tually heat ing up by
using the circuit breakers . The first time I went
ahead and left them on and then the other ring
came on . I fel t that one of them was about as
cold as the other, so I left the heaters on both
rings throughout the heating cycles .
Good.
They were in perfect sequence--A and B, A and B,
and about 15 minutes apart . The regulari ty was
surprising. The temperatures at the time when
these lights came on were indicating about 63 or
64 degrees and it seemed like it would come up a
little bit, and then come right back down and pop
back on again. I felt it was not an actual
temperature problem .
I used Rate Command, Reentry Rate Command and Pulse
control modes. I didn ' t use Direct . They a ll

Cases discussed

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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.