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.
13 so rapidl y. It wa.s tremendous. It looked like one of the autogenous lines ha.d been cut. I guess it was cut with a pyro, a.nd it was really bending and this was causing it to translate as well as rotate. And in order to stay with it, I was having to use quite a bit of fuel; although it was certainly a nominal task. I also went through several con trol modes switchings. I sta:rted out in PULSE and I could not get around fast enough, so I went to DIRECT a.nd then slowed it up in RA.TE COMMAND. Slowed up the direct rate I was using with RATE COMMAND, a.nd left it in RATE COMMAND without using the h&nd controller for a while. Finally went to l'LATFOBM. When I went to PLA.'f.E'OHM~ we had been off to one side of the booster. ~ . L went to PLATFORM, · it yawed me back around, and I lost sight of the booster . .SO we went out of PLATFORM· and flew t he rest of it in PULSE Mo~e using the reticle on the horizon for stabilization and using the maneuver controller for thrust. This is all on onboard tape,incidentally. The air to ground communications, throughout the f light were superior. Lovell I was really a.mazed a.t the communications, especially the primary station. The UHF was outstanding. Borman We have already discussed GO/NO GO. They came through loud and clear before we ever SEP spacecraft. We had no need for
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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.