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).

275
Cooper
Conrad
Cooper
Conrad
FCSD REP
Cooper
Yes, that's right. Okay, rendezvous is not applicable .
If there was one area that we were pretty well trained
on, t hat was retrofi re.
Yes.
I think we were in good shape for retrofire . We had
our checklist for a long time for pre-ret rofire
and retrofire . We were in good shape , well-trained,
and we went right through it like clockwork. I
think this area we were sitting r i ght on top ot No
problem at all .
We were in good shape in SECO, too . We went through
those SECO procedures in dandy shape. Got the
numbers out of t he computer and had all of the
se~uences and so forth and got that well down in
the GMS .
On rendezvous, how do you feel abou t the GMS training?
The procedures that we learned in the simulator were
fine, but you just can't take away that out-the
window simulation. When you add the out- the-window
element to it , it's di fferent. It ' s easier when
you kick the REP out a.hd there it is out t here
visually you can do it fine. The training that
we had up at McDonnell on that simulat or was just
identical to flight. Didn't you feel like we were
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