Gemini 7 Technical Debriefing, 1965

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.

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12.4 Mission Rules
Borman They are routine now. We have no r ea l arguments.
Lovell The only thing I can say about mission rules is the fact
that they can be changed by the Flight Director to suit
the situatio.n. There is enough flexibility in them
that allows the mission rules to meet the problem at
hand.
Borman Although, we did not have any problems that required us
to change them.
Lovell No, we did .not.
12.5 Experiments
Borman The only experiment that I thought was not well presented
pre-mission was the laser. That was a sort of half
baked preparation for quite a while, and at the last they
brought the equipment down to Hou.ston and it came out
pretty good.