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).

126
FCSD Rep
Cooper
Conrad
Cooper
Conrad
doing experiments or working, or if one in the
spacecraft, or doing all this other stuff, the other
one is just not going to sleep. This i~: pure and
simple as that.
How about mentioning about how quiet it is .
The inside of the spacecraft is just as quiet as
the inside of a very quiet office room .
Yeah. Well now , the big thing here is ihat we had
taken our helmets off and put these neck dams on
so we had no, none of this suit air flow over the
mikes. And when you get in that configuration so
you are not picking up any noises, as a matter of
fact , we had our intercom volumes turned down . Most
of our talking we were doing was to one another.
We were just talking in our normal tone of voice.
And our radio volume levels were extremely low . We
were carrying about 4 on our radio volumes . And
that was more than adequate volume. I mean that
guy came in loud and clear in the headset. You
could hear a pin drop in that spacecraft . The only
sound that you were aware of was a very gentle
swishing sound of air which was flow due to the
recirc being open .
Right .Cooper
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