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).

82 eOl <U'IDEl ◄ T I At
Well , that there again. Ti-ie cryos were really
the only problem we had with electrical. The main
bat teries ... the times tha t Pete touched them they
were just exactly like advertised.
Conrad Yes, they were 22½ volts every time we tested them ,
Cooper No problem at all. Squib ba tteries were fine , no
problem.
Conrad Squib ba tteries came down about, I would say
2½ volts during the whole flight. We
s t arted out with a common ccmtrol bus t ha t had been
27½ vol t s and a t the end of the flight it was 24 . 7
or s omething like that, 24, 8 or something. It came
down about 3 volts. But one thing that nobody ever
tol d me, was man, when you fire thrusters and
things like that you can s ee a l ot of t ransients on
that common control bus. Tha t thing really gets
to oscil l a ting up and down. I wasn' t sure s ome
thing wasn't wrong at the beginning, SlJd I just pass
t hat on as a tip to people who go later .
8, 7 Onboard Computer
Cooper On.board computer,
Conrad I can' t say too much for t he computer 6ither.
It worked f ant astically,