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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Conrad Yes, the lightning was bright enough io light the
shingles on the spacecraft.
Cooper You--the whole spacecraft could be li';. You would,
even through the polaroid windows- -with the polaroid
windows down full dark,some of these cig thunder
storms were lighting the whole thing.
Conrad Well , I tell you we saw some lightning· like I
just never dreamed existed. I mean the lightning
bolts must have covered a hundred miles.
Cooper In general in this lightning--
Conrad Cloud to cloud
Cooper In the clouds , in this lightning, in general,these
clouds light up like they were a big puff of
cotton with a light bulb inside, and the
whole thing just lights up . But Pete md I both
saw several cases where we would see a thunderst0rm
a l ittle ways out in the distance , and I actually
saw air to ground lightning bolts come right out
of the clouds and right down just 11 cho,:,m".
Conrad There was one storm we looked at for t :1em in the
daytime where we saw air to ground lig,1tning in
the daytime--
Cooper We saw lightning go all the way from t he edge of
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