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. 72 …The sea condition was very goon ; 2 to ,1. foot waves . We bobbed around, although I…
  • p. 132 …Borman The Red Sea area was one of the clear areas all the t i me…
  • p. 135 …The Suez Canal , the Red Sea, and the coast of Arabia were loud and clear the…
  • p. 136 …Lovell The Red Sea and the Gul f of Eden as it goes into the Arabian…
  • p. 140 …We evaluated them looking at the Cairo area and the Dead Sea, and I see no…
  • p. 146 …About the only area that was consistently clear was the Sahara and the Red Sea a…
  • p. 166 …You could pick out the area of the Salton Sea there even from where we were…
urinate into is unsatisfactory. We ended up with urine
all over ourselves everytime we t ried t o use it. I t
was sort of happenstance . If you lucked out, you didn't
get a leak . But based on the experience that we had up
there, I would think that the we.y to go is a simpl e
overboard device where you vent r ight to the atmosphere,
and urinate into a tub e•Esse.ntially the same thi.ng you
do in C-47,
Borman We carried the flow meter a long and the Delta P across
the f low meter and the filter can be i ncorporated with
it. I am sure this is enough to a l low you just to urinate
right into a relief tube right overboard. I do not see any
reason to go through this stage where you have urine all
over yourself 4 or 5 times a day. A very unacceptabl e
device . Do you agree?
Lovell Right. I thi nk we can improve on the urine dump system
tremendously.
Borman I think they ought to start looking into just a dump
right overboard. You do not use a rubber condom or
anything.
Lovell Because that things puts back pressure whi ch i s really sort
of dangerous I think , and besides that , it is uncomfortable.
And when you have ba ck pressure . ..
Borman Yeah. When you have a big enough receiver a nd you urinate

About this file

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