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Gemini 4 Experiment Debriefing, 1967

National Aeronautics and Space Administration · 1965 · 224 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

Belt ll l;.
spectacular than sunsets. I will try to explain that in a moment if I can.
Uh , going to go back a moment t o what Coope r J uh , what Schirra
uh, saw during a twilight right after sunset . He observed) uh, the planet
Mars and he observed at twilight, the sun had just set, a very specta.
cular array of colas , he describes them very carefully in the report,
in the blue.: book, his 1iJ.ue book, and sumrna.rys blue book too . Uh , he
d.escr-ibcd a ro.th r :Lnt est:lng blue hand that ' "' three blue bands ;
you r-an o.11 0chi c a. ' s hlues . Uh , . . . and he's ableis true to
d.o qu • t w 11, \./ i th bl1t ~s . He observe a da k blue , light blue, a nd a
dark blu /\nd t le worc.l "light" i1-i 1:1. d ··_ fi ult word. When one says
lj gh L on d.o sn ' l: know whether on m nns the lue was a lighter hue or
'j_t W:l: ; brig! It J: • nut 1 j t J it 1:ipp '1:1. ~ to be 1:1. iigr1t blue J and. one has
to use these wo tls or what t hey stand. Anyway, we uh , from what these
obse vations v re is (reportedly) on to a tape and is . (debriefing)
and afterwards we are all very consistent . We had an order to try to
construct this thing . The fir s t time a ound it needed a little correction
wr1en lkhirra saw 1.t; th s cond t me around he was somewhat, he was
quit plca"ell w:i. Llt H . We dic'c:tuse th . tomorrow is
11:;c· Ll1 kilometers hitsh up to rO, some-
t.!1inr, .L:ik that . It (H.·ems to huv u 11lll.Ximum around 2:> or 20 kil omete s .
1
rh, l1J1 ozone 1i8 you know, is very ve y absorbing in the ultraviolet,

Cases discussed

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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.