Documents / Official release
This NASA file from 1965 combines Mission Operation Report M-913-65-04 on the Gemini 4 (GT-4) flight with related correspondence. Memoranda from the Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight describe the planned four-day mission with James McDivitt and Edward White, including a spacewalk, a rendezvous with the booster second stage and thirteen experiments. Later letters and telegrams from NASA's Manned Space Science office concern the astronaut debriefing and requests for GT-4 photography and film for scientific analysis.
From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 Incident: June 3-7, 1965, Low Earth Orbit. Gemini IV was the second crewed mission of the Gemini series. Astronauts James McDivitt and Edward White successfully completed the four-day flight between June 3 and June 7, 1965. The mission included the first American spacewalk. This collection of documents contains a transcription of the astronauts recounting their observations of bright particles outside the spacecraft, dated circa June 25, 1967, on pages 78-81, and page 101.
“Gemini 4”18 pages
Astronauts Track Missile in Space In 'Typical Day' Aboard Gen1ini 5 By Howard Simons and appeared to have mas- man missile from Vandenberg Washllliton Po•t Slat! Writer tered the temperature-regu- Air Force Base in California. HtOULSTOGN, dAug.C24-ASlJro- lating mechanism, which nau s . or on ooper r. . . th and Charles Conrad Jr. g1vmg them e chills spotted, tracked and photo- c_auslng then:i to shiver, graphed a Minuteman inter- tlcularly durmg sleep. was 'Ihe 65-foot Minuteman was and launched at 12:37 a.m. (EDT), par- as part of a missile combat crew training mission. Shortly continental ballistic missile AStronaut Ja_mes McDivitt after the ICB 1 was off the launched from California to- ~alled ~t a "typical" day, dur- . day as their Gemini 5 space- mg which the astronauts were pad Conrad spotted it. . craft orbited the earth. catching up with their experi- The Minuteman was flying "I see it, I see it!" Conrad ments. Some of these were a path 155 statute miles north shouted as the missile succ"ssful; Others were not. of Gemini 5' path. The point streaked through space on its Cooper had repaired his of closest approach to the way to a watery target in the faulty reticle, or gunsight, spacecraft was 201 miles. At Pacific. which helped the astronauts the time Conrad and Cooper For two minutes the astro- better to pinpoint targets in tracked the missile, they were nauts watched the Minuteman. space .and on the ground. 125 miles above the earth'sc; sur- Conrad took six pictures of Hence, they took a beat-sens- face. it. At the same ti~e, an _in- ing measm:emenJ of the star Questions Rai ed !rared or heat-sensmg device Deneb, which they were un- recorded the kind and amount able to do the day before. The The fact that the hcat-sens of heat being emitted by the astronauts also have photo- ing measurements and the solid-fueled ICBM-a thousand graphed the mysterious zodia- photographs of Minuteman of which constitute the bulk cal light, which is thought to and other targets are being • of America's strategic nuclear be a backscattering of light conducted for the J:?efense De• punch. from dust orbiting the earth. part~ent has raised some Conrad and Cooper con- . . questions here. tinue to circle the earth in Trouble m Spotting The problem, essentially, their fourth day. They have Attempts to see giant 2000x seems_ to be th_is: already been granted permis- 2000-foot eye charts on the ~a!,i~nal policy h:is cast the sjon to continue their journey ground near Laredo Tex activities of the National Aero for anoU1er day and Gemini have been less successful. Ai: 11:aut~cs and Space ~dministra ojficials see no current prob- though they could see smoke tio~ m a peaceful light. _Great lems that might foreshorten from smoke pots set out to care h~~ been taken to divorce an eight-day mission. If all help t!lem pinpoint the Laredo the m~li~3!Y aspects of space goes well, the astronauts will charts, they first missed the from ci~illan program, notably , pass the four-day mark at charts altogether and then saw sp;ie f/;t~t e:~orr . r o u g h 1 y 10 a.m. •(EDT) two that they misidentified. . e n ° m ormat10n be- Wednegday. More visible to the orbiting mg ~athered by Cooper a~d " " " . ., sightseers were contrails from Con~ad. does have po~~nbal Dull and Typical three airplanes near Jackson- application for the nuhtarr. Today was variously de- ville, Fla., "and all the streets The challenge, t~erefore, 18 "b d "d ll" ''t · l" ·n ·t (J k -11 ) d th Whether the Nat10n shouldsen e a~ u , yp1ca, i 1 ac sonv1 e , an e preclude all m"lit • tT and "busy " Cape (Kennedy) and all the - • d t l\". •., Flight Surgeo_n Ch a r le s way own o ~m~u. Berry charactenzed the day But the experiment that as "dull,'' which he explained caused the most excitement is "a good day" medically. was the successful tracking by The astronauts were "alert" the astronauts of the Minute- . . i ary sei_en 1 ic and engmeermg expenments from ASA's activities• Chronology of astronauts' fourth, day in orbit. Page AIO. ' i ~ ~ f t 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 224 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.