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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digital read- out was a computer problem in the
catch- up and rendezvous mode of accepting radar data
or whether it was radar problem, but I ' ll mention
under the computer becaus e I sort of suspect it was
a computer problem.
Cooper Eut I don't understand why it worked so well the one
time and the other time it didn't work.
Conrad Something gave out . Either in the radar or in the
computer. Well, then we never did get ·to check '- a.ny
thing in the rendezvous mode.
Cooper No , reentry ....
Conrad We dan 1t know what the problem was in reentry, but
I think the canputer did a 40 job it did just what
it was suppose to do. It just had bum dope .