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.

49
Borman We'll have to see. We don't have readings on that .
Lovell Okay, because I'm sure we did more than 20 degrees.
:Borman Then I t hrew the motor valves back open age.in on the thrus
ters, and that seemed to stop it. So I left them open a
while and finally turned them on again and it stopped, and
it settled out, and it was pretty smooth on the drogue. As
a matter of fact, when we got dow to ma.in chute, it we.a
steady as a rock on the drogue.
Lovell Yes.
6.7 35K Checklist
Borman I turned off the RCS motor valves a.nd blipped t he thrusters
to clear the lines between 30,000 feet to 26,000 feet. And
Jim then opened--The 40K ba.rostat worked fine.
6.8 Communicatiol_!!!
Borman And we gave the reentry status report. I 'm not sure th&t
Houston heard it, but we told them the drogue was all risht
and okay.
6.9 26K Checklist
Borman Jim, at 26,000 feet you opened the vent air snorkel