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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Borman
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Lovell
Borman
organization set up this way , it sure made a difference .
And every part of the Center came through . It was very
effective at the stowage mockups and the Des ign Rev iew to
have Kenny Kleinknecht or Chuck Matthews right there and
to make a desicion and then it stuck . That was very ,
very helpful from the very beginning there . The first
day we went to that stowage review up there , we had
the basic concept solved and we had the ECP's in to
get the stowage the way we wanted it. It was very
helpful . I do not think there was one thing that we
really wanted in the spacecraft that GPO did not provide .
Everybody was very cooperative , I thought .
But that was another it em that I strongly recommend the
crews to do. , .. is attend Management Meetings... particularly
while the spacecraft is in St . Louis . You will find
a lot of decisions are made and you can get in there and
get your voice in. The people listen to you as long
as you are not unreasonable , and you will end up making
an awful lot of money in a very short time if you will
get to the decision making.