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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the glow as they fire .
Conrad And it is pure white .
Cooper And- -
Conrad My recollection of i t --like white li€·ht glowing.
Cooper Of the RCS Plumes?
Conrad No , of t he OAMS .
Cooper Oh yes. The OAMS . The RCS had a little bit of a
golden color to them.
Conrad Yes .
Cooper And--
Conrad Plus you see on t he RCS t hrusters you see little
bits of pieces of ablative material c)ming out
like carbon.
Cooper Yes. Right.
The RCS plumes tend to come out of th,3 nozzle
with a little bit of an expansion rat:lo and then
just to come out in almost a column that doesn't
change much. It just increases in si,;e.
Conrad Yes . I was surprised t hat it didn't expand out
this way.
Cooper Yes, I thought it would expand out .
Conrad But it just went straight up.
Cooper I very much thought it would fan completely out .