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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receiving us. We were transmitting coming down on
the chute, on the main chute. We made two steerage
transmissions and counts, and AIR BOSS received
these and acknowledged them and got the clears
on them. After we were on the water, he apparently
was not receiving us.
Conrad Okay, now, I found a mistake, and that is my fault
on the HF antenna. I went down through the check
list but I read this one item wrong. I had all
three squib batteries off. I should have left the
No . 3 squib battery on. The antenna goes up on
the common control bus, so that is my fault that
the antenna didn't go· up.
Cooper But, I thought I remembered when you put those off
was after we had already gone through all this.
Conrad Well, I'm not sure that you are not right there,
but I still made the mistake of turning all three
squib batteries off. I'm sure that if it doesn't
go up with the squib batteries on, then there is
something wrong with the antenna, but if it goes
with the squib battery on, why it was my fault .
Cooper But , in defense of Pete on this, I 'm almost sure
that we had already gone through all the sequence