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…

Conrad Now , you see . Here ' s something that I've never heard
from the other guys .
Cooper Now there ' s another thing. See, we never had a simulator
to show us . Never once did we have any darn thing to
show us what out the window should look like .
Conrad And when the Platform is alined and you ' re zero- zero- zero ,
boy, oh boy! That ' s a , just -- It's a very peculiar looking
situation and it ' s not what I expected to see at all .
Cooper No , it isn' t me either .
Conrad And I ' ve never heard either Gus of John or Jim and Ed say
"Put a little gouge out" Now I ' ve got a gouge tha t I
can draw for you where I 'm sure tha t I can put the Plat
form in roll and pitch within a degree in roll and pitch
of where it should be out the window on the horizon and
it ' s by using the corner of the window and the RCS
thrusters on the front : the front RCS yaw thruster in
the lower corner of the window and you can put the
Platform-- you can put the spacecraft zero- zero and roll
and pitch just, well , like that. We didn ' t know that
before we went .
Cooper This is one of my strongest recommendations if we aren ' t
going to have any kind of a visual out the window display
at least we ought to get some of the great planners to
•

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