Gemini 5 Technical Debriefing, Part II, 1965

This is a preliminary Part II transcript of the Gemini 5 (GT-5) flight crew debriefing, prepared by the Spacecraft Operations Branch of NASA's Flight Crew Support Division and dated September 2, 1965. It records astronauts Cooper and Conrad at the Crew Quarters, Cape Kennedy. They discuss how the spacecraft systems worked, including the platform and the OAMS thruster failures. The transcript also covers operational checks, visual sightings, experiments, training, premission planning, and medical aspects. It was originally classified Confidential.

From the source: Release of 2026-06-12 Incident: August 30 - September 2, 1965, Cape Kennedy, Florida. This document is a preliminary transcript (Part II) 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. Astronauts L. Gordon Cooper and Charles “Pete” Conrad described observing debris and “snow” and “all sorts of glittering pieces of this, that and the other thing” in the “Visual Sightings” section of the document (pages 157-220).

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Cooper
Conrad
Cooper
Conrad
Cooper
Conrad
Cooper
Conrad
to retro, we wanted to save as much fuel as
possible, so we alined BEF and I think alining
BEF is easier than in SEF.
Yes ,
I think you can tell yaw better going backwards
than you can going forward.
Yes.
I don't know why, maybe it was just psychological .
I agree with you, I really think you're right.
I think you can tell it better. It streams away
from you a little more .
Yes. It was easier to pull in in yaw. I thought
it was a little more comfortable feeling . I
enjoyed the riding around alining the platform
BEF much more than when we alined it SEF, and I
felt we were closer to being on most of the time
when we pulled it in in yaw.
Of course, we had a little better control system
there, it does help.
Yes .
M t ◄ FIDE ►~TIAL •