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. 9 …12.4 Mission Rules ............. .. ......•. .. ......177 12,5 Experiments••.•..•••••.•...•......•...•....•177 13.0 MISSION CONTROL 13.1 GO…
  • p. 39 …It resulted in a left yaw rate and this continued periodi cally throughout the mission. It…
  • p. 40 30 shut down 1 we put it in a different control mode and it still fired…
  • p. 104 …The controls were adequate. Data Recording? We tried to record as much data as we could…
  • p. 131 …period mission briefing. It followed the way we were briefed. Very good. Lovell Flight controll ers…
121
was a pain in the neck. We decided to leave it on though
on the theory that if we turned it off the first thing the
experimenter would say was, ''Well you turned it off'. It
was not a valid test ." Then some crew in the future would
have to fly with the thing. So, we left it on for two
weeks and listened to it "clank". As far as I know it
didn ' t do any good. Maybe that ' s the end of the M-1.
Invariably, in a state of semi- consciousness it would rouse
me again. I did not like that.
Lovell Sleep configuration was very easy. You just clasp your
.hands t ogether and hold them there. When you wake up your
bands are still clasped together. There are no pressure
points. You can have a book up there , go to sleep holding
the book, and wake up the next morning and the book is still
right there , still at the same page . It was outstanding.
If mattress companies ever find out how to make a zero-g
mattress they would really have a fortune .
Borman Sleep period mission briefing. It followed the way we were
briefed. Very good.
Lovell Flight controll ers were very outstanding. Keeping quiet
during the sleep period. As a matter of fact, they even
called up Wally one time and told him to be quiet. Yes ,
they told him to be quiet . It was our sleep period.
Borman Everything went fine.

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.