Documents / Official release

Gemini 7 Technical Debriefing, 1965

National Aeronautics and Space Administration · 1965 · 222 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is a preliminary transcript of the Gemini 7 technical debriefing, dated December 23, 1965, from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It was made from tape recordings of the crew debriefing held December 19 to 21, 1965 at the Crew Quarters, Cape Kennedy, Florida. In it, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell go through countdown, powered flight, insertion, station keeping with the booster, systems, experiments and training. The table of contents also lists a section on visual sightings during orbital flight.

From the source: Release of 2026-06-12 Incident: December 19-21, 1965, Cape Kennedy, Florida. This document is a preliminary transcript derived from voice recordings of the Gemini 7 flight crew debriefing conducted December 19-21, 1965, at the Crew Quarters, Cape Kennedy, Florida. Lights and flashes are mentioned and there is discussion about having proper illumination for vehicle docking. Borman and Lovell discuss celestial and terrestrial observational anomalies and note sightings of Mercury, meteors, aurora, and lightning. They also discuss not being able to see any stars once the Sun comes up.

2
1.5 ECS
Borman ECS worked fine. We had no trouble with ECS at all during
prelaunch or launch.
Lovell That is true. The purge was a lot slower and it was just
perfect for the final countdown. It was too fast for the
SIM Flight, which we went through, a.nd I got an ee.:r block
age. For the countdown, it was ju.st r ight. Very slow.
1.6 Sounds
Borman We had been well briefed on all the soundsz the gimbaling,
pre- valve, a.nd erector. As a matter of fact, when the erec
tor started down there was no sound. We had been told that
probably there might be a clanking or something. I hes.rd
nothing.
Lovell All I saw was the sky.
1.7 Vibrations
Borm8ll Vibrations. No comment. I had no problems.
Lovell Is this liftoff vibrations?
Borman No, this is countdown. Vibrations of the spacecraft during
coun tdown.
Lovell No, nothing we had not heard before.
1.8 Visual
Lovell The windows were perfeot. We had no fogging.
Borman No fogging.

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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 222 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.