Documents / Official release

Gemini 5 Technical Debriefing, Part I, 1965

National Aeronautics and Space Administration · 1965 · 223 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is a preliminary transcript of the Gemini V (GT-5) flight crew debriefing, prepared by NASA's Spacecraft Operations Branch, Flight Crew Support Division, and dated September 1, 1965. It records Cooper and Conrad's operational account from the debriefing held August 30 to September 1, 1965 at Cape Kennedy. Topics include countdown, window fogging, POGO vibration, fairing jettison debris, radio loss, reentry and recovery. Visual sightings are left for a later part of the debriefing.

From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 Incident: August 2 - September 2, 1965, Cape Kennedy, Florida. This document is a preliminary transcript (Part I) derived from voice recordings of the Gemini 5 flight crew technical debriefing. NASA conducted this debriefing between August 30, 1965, and September 2, 1965, at the Crew Quarters, Cape Kennedy, Florida.

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“Cooper”60+ pages

p. 6 1 1 .0 COUNTDOWN 1.1 Crew Insertion Cooper The crew insertion , I thought, went very…
p. 7 2 Cooper 1.6 Sounds Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad 1. 7 Vibration Cooper right away. I…
p. 8 …Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad FCSD REP Conrad Cooper / Visual . Nothing.... Oh , yes…
p. 9 …wor se when they lowered the erector . Cooper It didn't make it go away all…
p. 10 5 FCSD REP Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad,. Okay , how about the time you spent…
p. 11 6 2.1 Lif t Off Cues Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper FtE>ENTI L 2…
p. 12 …2 Roll Program Conrad Cooper 7C.(&)Hft0ENTI:,\~~au, !to our sight as we were lifting off…
p. 13 8 Conrad Cooper FCSD REP Cooper 2. 3 Pitch Program Cooper 2. 4 Aerodynamic Cooper progressi…
p. 14 …5 ECS Conrad Cooper Conr ad Cooper Conrad Cooper 2 . 7 Wind Shear Cooper 2 . 8…
p. 15 …2, 10 POGO Cooper Conrad ( Cooper It was beautiful. Just now in between engine 1 operation…
p. 16 11 i t Conrad RCSD REP Cooper FCSD REP Cooper FCSD REP Cooper edge of reading…
p. 17 …11 Engine 2 Status Cooper Engine 2 status stayed ... was perfect . There was not anything wrong…
p. 18 13 Cooper BECO was right on the money . .. 2 . 14 Staging Conrad Boy, that staging was…
p. 19 14 2.16 RGS Initiate Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad FCSD REP Conrad Cooper Conrad • starts burning…
p. 20 …That booster was in pitch and yaw as far as that went Cooper Those rate needles…
p. 21 …of putting it back to after insertion. Cooper Well, it ' s supposed to go off askew…
p. 22 …I can't put my finger on it, but -- Cooper It came off in many pieces…
p. 23 18 Conr ad Cooper Conrad FCSD REP they were not there before they were t'nere…
p. 24 19 Cooper There ' s a whole fly . Oh, you mean the debris . It was gone . Conrad…
p. 25 …l8 GO/NO GO Cooper FCSD REP Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper GO/NO GO: We…
p. 26 …19 Systems Status Cooper System Status everything .. . . Conrad We did have ... Let me describe the delta…
p. 27 22 Conrad Cooper 2. 21 Steering Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper FCSD REP Conrad Cooper I…
p. 28 Conrad Cooper Conrad 3 ,1 Post SECO Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper 23~IE>l!NTtAE…
p. 30 …I' ve been Cooper Conrad Cooper Cooper Conrad t rying to make tbis pein-t-ewe…
p. 31 26 CONF:10ENT-IA Cooper We separated as smooth as silk just r i ,5ht straight…
p. 32 .. Cooper Conrad Cooper FCSD REP Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper FCSD REP FHID~Nf lAL 27…
p. 33 28 Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Hey, that's…
p. 34 …Cooper Conrad Cooper FCSD REP Cooper Conrad Cooper ONEl0EtslJl~E wrong. We really had good comm…
p. 35 …3.3 Insertion Activities Cooper Okay, l et ' s start on inser tion activities. SAFE t…
p. 36 …Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad .kQt4FIDfNJ1A.L, trouble getting my D-ring in, did you…
p. 37 32 Cooper Conrad were never up . to reenter lready decided t hat I was not going…
p. 38 FtDENTtAL 33 Cooper Okay, belts . I couldn ' t ~~he belts . The harness - While we 're on…
p. 39 Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper took my harness off in flight twice . I took…
p. 40 …adjustments see-- Cooper Okay, well . Conrad Where you coul d make the legstraps loose but you…
p. 41 Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper ment and on that same fitting you have the little…
p. 42 …have had a place to stow it . Cooper Right . Conrad But the other thing is that…
p. 43 …4.0 Orbital Flight Cooper Okay, on 4 . 0 Orbital Fli ht . Platform Alinement. Conrad There…
p. 44 …did get back to using it again . Cooper Well, we had other control system problems which…
p. 45 …You went to SEF and caged and SEF and Platform Control Mode, Cooper We pitched down…
p. 46 …Conrad FCSD Rep Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper 41• Or more . In other words , it continued…
p. 47 …FCSD Rep How long did you aline the Platform initially? Cooper Initially, we alined the platform…
p. 48 …ve never heard from the other guys . Cooper Now there ' s another thing. See, we never…
p. 49 ----- 44 • Conrad Cooper Conrad draw up on a piece of paper what the window , what the…
p. 50 …FCSD Rep Did you ever go back to Primary after that? Cooper Oh . We checked it…
p. 51 …to find out what happened on that , Cooper Yes , something was really fouled up , I think…
p. 52 Cooper FCSD Rep Cooper FCSD Rep Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad ee,~FID El…
p. 53 48 FCSD Rep Cooper Conrad - This Perigee adjust. Did you do that i::1 Rate- is…
p. 54 .. FCSD Rep Conrad Cooper Conrad FCSD Rep Conrad Cooper Cooper Conrad We were at the power…
p. 55 50 Cooper Conrad Cooper FCSD Rep Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad :JI bat we…
p. 56 …Cooper Conrad FCSD Rep Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper FCSD Rep Cooper Conrad FCSD REP Cooper Conrad…
p. 57 52 L Cooper Conrad FCSD REP Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad l ight blinks Green/OFF, Green…
p. 58 …s when the scanner started going out , Cooper That's when the scanner started dropping out…
p. 59 Conrad FCSD REP Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper It ' s really a grey area. Right…
p. 60 55 Conrad Cooper Conrad , / \ .. Yeah. But you add one little failure in there and you ' ve…
p. 61 C Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad @OMFIBEt4t4A.L decided that something wasn't…
p. 62 …Conrad It kept right on going straight out, and- Cooper It wasn't slowing down very…
p. 63 C Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad. See, the REP went straight out and…
p. 64 Cooper " Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad Cooper Conrad 59eNftOf We never got the point where it…
p. 65 60 Cooper Conrad :But you did go back to the AUTO. Yeah . I put ii; back…
p. 66 r ~ ENTI~ - 61 Cooper So we said okay and we ' re stopping it right here and…

170 ONFl[;)ENTIAL
out yesterday and that the load in it was valid . It 1 s
just that they computed the wrong place to land , in
Houston, and sent the wrong load , period . Boy , that
was a heck of a thing to do, and I really that darn
I 1
DCS! m going to do just what I said I was going to
do. I f I ever fly again , I ' m not going to fly with
that DCS circuit breaker on. That ' s just exactly what
I was afraid was going to happen, and they couldn ' t
have done it at a worse time in the flient . They
just absolutely couldn't have done it wcrse . The
one thing that I had forgotten many times was putting
that computer from PRELAUNCH to REENTRY. I had it
underlined 50 times on the check- off liflt . I was
going to make sure that it was in REENTI'.Y . When they
told me leaving the Cape we had a valid load and a
valid TR , I called McDivitt and I said :: 1 m putting
the computer in REENTRY. The next thin/~ is , at
Carnarvon the guy should have seen on h:.s board that
the computer was in REENTRY and should have told me
instead of sending a load like he did . We moved as
f ast as we could when he said he was sending loads
to put the darn thing back to PRELAUNCH . That really
screwed us up and I 1 m really mad about that . That ' s
the only gripe I have against them, but it's a major one .

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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 223 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.