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.

Open the PDF at page 38 Original source ↗

“Sea”9 pages

  • 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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of them out on my right hand. I wasn ' t too happy
about it .
White I was a little disappointed. I think the only
discrepancy I found in my suit was that I had no
blood pressure plug either. A point that I was
pretty happy with was that I had no pressure points
from my suit at all on my body . I had one set of
pressure points from my helmet pressing down on the
front forward part of my head. I lmew why this
was . I 'd had Joe Schmitt adjust my cables so that
I could pull my helmet down to a maximum amount
for the EVA work. I felt that I just bought this
discomfort by having my cables adjusted in this
manner. It was pretty uncomfortable though . I
checked out the use of the emergency bottles on
the EVA equipment and they worked as they were
supposed to . I was able to regulate the flow.
Incidently , before I went out the reading on the
EVA bottles was full-scale, 3400 pounds . I was
happy to see that . Al l in all, I was quite happy
with the suit . I think it was a very well designed
suit and it met the requirements that were levied
upon it . It was a heavy suit and a big suit to
wear for four days, but I felt the auit wasn ' t as
€ ~~f-~L

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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.