Documents / Official release
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.
“Frank Borman”10 pages
172 Rather tightl y packed in. We really had to work to get it out. Borman But again, thi s is one of those things we were operating right up to the maximum capab i l i ty of the spacecraft, and I guess we ha d to expect that, e.ven though we did get it out. So I would not say it was unacceptable. 11.13 Miscellaneous Borman Celesti a l and t erresti al observati ons, and significant observati ons or a.nomoiies affecti ng other opera.tio.naJ or experimental da.t a.. Lovell Well , we got to see Mars just nea.r the sun by looking a.t it just at sunset . Borman Mercury you mean. Mercury. We saw Mercury. And we made some other observations here for the sci entists. Lovell Zodiacal light came in loud and clear after we found out how to look f or it. Borman Right. Lovell We could not s ee the Gegenshein though , we knew exactl y where t o l ook . Borman Okay. We also made several night passes counti ng meteor s . One at 215 hours plus 23 minutes, 25 seconds , I 'llade one night pass counting meteors for the entire 30 some minutes . And I saw.l meteor under Taurus and Pleia.des and it was below us , and it was short and white. The
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.