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).

176
Cooper
Conrad
Cooper
Conrad
Cooper
Conrad
Cooper
Let 's go through these now. Number 1 fired exactly
on time. Boy, right on the money with 'I'R . We
were right on the money. Every clock we: had in
the spacecraft was just reading right O when
it fired. No delay or anything anywhere. Just
beautiful. Number 1 was still firing when number
2 started to fire.
That 's correct.
And there was no off-set whatsoever from. number
1 and number 2 .
That's right.
Then number 2 had finished firing for a definite
delta time period before number 3 fired.
That 's right.
Then number 3 fired and had an offset to the
left--to the left--yes to our left which was not
bad and I think they had r times that am::runt of
off- set it had and still hold it with th~ RCS ,
no with the rate command. No problem at all. No
doubt in your mind. You were way more t han over
powering. You must keep it glued right t here.
But then number 3 finished firing and then there
was an even greater delta time- -