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.

White
McDivitt
comfortable with my helmet on for two days.
Do you want to know something that ' s kind of
strange? I was more comfortable with my helmet
on than off. I n fact, I kind of got used to
those pressure points on the top of my head with
the helmet on . When I took the helmet off and
moved my head around , I felt a little dizzy from
not having these restraints. I didn ' t feel as
comfort able as I did with my helmet on. The times
I had my helmet off were when I was running D-9.
I ran the D-9 Experiment several times with my
helmet off so I'd have better use of my sextant .
I took it off one other time near the end when
they indicated they would like to have every-
thing off . I didn ' t feel particularly comforta
ble with my helmet off any more. I got so us ed
to having that thing on that I put it on so I
could talk better with the stations . They were
calling me from time to time , and I thought it
would be a little better. Before I forget, I
think the portable headset is really a lousy
design .
I concur. I think it ought to be thrown out .
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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.