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).

150
Conrad
9 . 8 HF Evaluati on
Conrad
Cooper
some 160 miles . I read the numbers out over the
air. I ' m not sure that they aren't on t ape , too .
The tape hadn't run out then . Then we tracked back
out again and it pointed right to t his f-''.ILA area
here at the Cape when we had the needles centered .
Gordo was tracking on the needles, and it seemed to
work real well. We are really impressed with it.
As you know, we got it to lock on the REP everytime
after that over the Cape , but we never g~t the range
to read right . I don't know whether that was a
radar prob lem or a computer problem .
At that time , the voice recorder was working on the
first test, and I thi nk there is some in::ormation
on the tape .
HF evaluation test number 1 . We transmi t ted all
the way around the worl d. Then we gave i.:.p number 2,
because it was keeping the other :Astronaut awake .
Then we did the other HF transmission test which
was l isten . We did hear Hawaii for awhile going
away from them and coming back in -
That was a ridiculous test anyway.