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. 25 15 Borman Could you identify any type of the debris? Lovell No, pieces.That is all…
  • p. 61 …LoveJl Frank thought it was in the reef ed con<lition for 3 months . Borman It…
  • p. 64 …Meanwhile , Frank ' s got the checklist out and the guys out there are putting on the…
  • p. 83 …Lovell We might mention here that both Frank and I think making adjust maneuvers without a…
  • p. 90 …We had no problems with air flow. :Borman It would have been a very, very difficult…
  • p. 93 …When I was out of the suit and Frank was in it, we put my suit…
  • p. 118 …Lovell Frank's was better than mine. Whenever I could I would give him the cameras…
  • p. 125 …Lovell It was a necessary evil, Frank. Borman We were a little concerned when we opened…
  • p. 141 131 Borman The reception on HF during the fl i ght was very poor. Lovell Right…
  • p. 172 …Lovell The magnitude of this laser is a lot less than either Frank or I suspected…
120
Borman Sleep periods . This is one of the areas where we really
made a wise decision. We decided that we would sleep simul
taneously on the regular Houston schedule. We did slide it
back every day to correspond with the precession of the
orbit . When we were scheduled for house-keeping and sleep,
we would close up the windows. We found that the polaroid
filters were not adequate t so , we cut up an aluminized food
bag and placed it between the window and the polaroid shield.
Then , it was really dark inside, it cut out the heat, and
this left us with a real simulated night. As far as we were
concerned, it was night time. We would get up the next day ,
go to work , and it kept us regular. It kept ue relatively
on a constant type of schedule. I thought it was very ,
very good.
Lovell We are going to have to go to that for any of the long
flights , any of the lunar missions. For any of the long
flights we are going to need to use a regular Houston or
Cape day and not change the routine .
Borman On Apollo , with three men , you probably will have to stand
a watch.
Lovell True. But still, you are going to have to keep from getting
too irregular. I thought sleeping in zero- g was very com
fortable . I slept like a log that first week.
Borman Yes, I had troubles sleeping. The M-1 was the culprit. It

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.