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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Regardless of which way you approachec. it from,
whether you approached i t fast or slm.- or whether
you 're going through the 90 or 270 pojnt on the
ball, you can go right smack through the middle
of it, you can sit right in the middle of it,
you can move up or down, r ight or left and the
ball doesn't jump, doesn't j itter, doesn't do
anything . It's just beautiful .
Conrad Yes .
Cooper We did a burn right through each one of the poles .
I think the controls are pretty simila-r to what
they are in the s imulator . There are t wo
exceptions, one of which I think i s valid and
which I think may be influenced by the fact that
we had a lot of s low degredation in ou:~ OAMS
system. I thought that the PlJISE system in the
spacecraft had a lot less torque, a reasonable
amount less torque and it got a lot leBs, as we
went along it got less and less and leHs .
Conrad Yes .
Cooper But even i nitially, it felt like thP- PlLSE system