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.

  • p. 124 …Lovell We never had any l arge amounts of dandruff or anything floating around. Borman The…
110
I took the core card, and after I read the various cores for
the reentry parameters, I got the nominal IVI's, also the
bank angle updates and things of this nature, all on one
card·. Then I went back to the other section and transposed
them in there .
:Borman One of t he most i mport ant things about the checklist on
this flight was t he fact that we had them about a month
before the fl ight. We used them in training, and the peop l e
responsi ble for that di d a great job, Chuck Stough and Ted
Guillory.
Lovell That is important. On GT-4, because of the newness of the
system, we were still rearranging cards and books just prior
to the f light. Learning from that flight, on GT-7 we really
gained a lot by having the cards and books early in the
game so we could train with them.
Checklist cards useful ness was outstanding.
:Borman The maps and overlays were fine. We carried the larger
orbital display m.e.p. I'm not really sure we needed it. It
was a little cumbersome i n the coclq)it. It was all right,
but general areas would have been just as readily available
on a small map. When we were doing the Apollo landmarks,
particularly those with coastal features, I thought Apollo
landmark • maps were entirely adequate. I did not see any-
reason for photographs. If you really want photographs, the

About this file

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.