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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we got pictures with a 16 mm. We did not get
pictures with the Hassleblad because we could not
unstow the Hassleblad at this time.
14.7 Flight Experiments
Borman Simulations: The one we used most frequently
was the Gl'1[S'""' for the D-4/D-7 tracking,
Lovell We also used it for the sextant.
Borman Although it wasn't a good utilization, we used it
for t~e D-5.
Lovell Just for procedures. Most of our experiment
simulation was done in the mock-up. The wooden
mock-up.
Borman Translation and Docking Trainer. We used the
Translation and Docking Trainer for some tracking
training with the laser . It was not all I had
hoped it would be. Nevertheless it did give
us training and convinced us it would be no
problem in tracking with the laser. This was
borne out by the flight that the mai n problem would
be acquiring it. We picked up the fact in the
docking trainer that the reticle is not visible