Gemini 9 Debriefing, 1966

This 1966 NASA file collects memoranda by Jocelyn R. Gill of the Manned Flight Experiments Office, plus related correspondence, on the scientific experiments of the Gemini IX mission. Status reports from March and June 1966 describe the zodiacal light, airglow, micrometeorite and synoptic photography experiments, and an experiments debriefing held June 16. The file also contains a congratulatory telegram to astronauts Stafford and Cernan and a Naval Research Laboratory letter on the S-9 cosmic ray experiment. It reports no unidentified objects.

From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 Incident: June 3-6, 1966, Low Earth Orbit. Gemini IX (renamed Gemini IX-A) was the seventh crewed flight of the Gemini series, launched on June 3, 1966. The mission’s primary objectives included a spacewalk and multiple scientific and medical experiments. This document, dated June 16, 1966, is a transcript of a NASA debriefing of astronauts Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan. Pages 2-5 of this document contain the astronauts’ accounts of their observations of “flashing lights” and “sparkles” during the mission.

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PP MS:KSCF
OE NASAHQ 162
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P 072027Z .
FM NASA HEADQUARTERS ~ASHDC
TO KENNEDY SPACE CENTER FLA
NASA
BT . . .
UNCLAS SM•162. GEtHNI IX ASTROOAUTS LT COLONEL
- LT C<llfMANDER E:UGENE CERNAN ASTRONAUTS . OFFIC!; .
TALK ABOOT AN ACE !N THE HOLE••• CONGRATULATIONS TO GEMINI IX ~~
CARRYING OUT A r~osr DIF£ICU~T AND T~YING MISSICN. YOUR PATIENCt
AND COURAGE WERE REWARDED. WE ARE PLEASED THAT YOO WERE ABLE TO
CA"'tRY our MOST OF.THE EXPERIMENTS AND LOOK FORWARD EAGERLY TO IHE
·RESULTS. TriANK YOO so· r1ucH F~ YOlJR OUTSTANDING COOPERATION Ai1D •
EFFOH iN ·THIS REGARD. A S~tCIAl.. · MESSAG:: TO ·THE PILOT FRQ.'tl
DR. JCCEL YN GILL, A FELLOW PR 0V IS OITE WHO PRECED£0 HIM BY A -FEW
YEARS, WARM CONGRATULATIONS ON THE LOOG SPACE W-ALX..-.. IT · w.AS
EXPECTED OF couqsE THAI PRC1JISO CO{Jti) ACC0.'1:?LISH It.
/S/ WILLIS B FOSTER: DIRECT CR. MANNEP' FLIGHT EXPERIMENTS
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