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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jiggle--single ring was holding i t just as
tight as could be . Retrofire attitude
.. control - I had already mentioned on there
dual ring. Rate Command, reentry attitude
control-- I had already mentioned how we
shot the reentry. No primary heater lights .
Heater lights on the RCS - they were on
practically--we had the heater on 99 percent
of the whole flight. We turned it off, got
heater lights on Ring A first, brought the
RCS heaters on then rechecked-heater light
went off and turned the heater off and about
five or ten minutes later-fifteen minutes
later, the heater light came on and then it
was on Ring Band we turned the heater back
on and this went on five or six times and
finally we just turned the heater on and
left it on the whole flight. I monitored
the temper~tures f~equently throughout the
whole flight in the RCS Ring A - temperature
ran about 70 degrees or about 65 degrees
and the RCS Ring B temperature ran about
70 to 72 degrees the entire flight . At
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