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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rate . And past 27,000 feet that cabin :lndicator
hit zero fas~er than you could say Jack Robinson.
That thing came off the peg and I had to go back
to the old procedure of--
Cooper Snorkel open up .
Conrad Snorkel vent open , and recirc at 45 deg.eees.
We didn ' t seal it up again until 2,000 , so that
didn't work.
Cooper Then, at 10 . 6 the altimeter and the barostat
light were exactly right together. I punched the
main and it came out reefed. It held rnefed
for approximately 12 seconds . We were nxactly
straight, no oscillations or swings or gyrations
on the chute at all. I n fact, we were flO stable
on the chute that in the reefed condition the
skirt was exactly symmetrical arou."1.d thn bottom.
There was no breathing to one side or anything.
Conrad I think that is another thing that speaks highly
of this rate command business, even through
we shut it off at 30,000 feet. By that time, we
were well slowed down, and there was no big os
cillation, left on the drogue . So the 1•est of
the ride with no system was free . Now, when that
.,