Documents / Official release

Preliminary Gemini 4 Crew Debriefing, Part II, 1965

National Aeronautics and Space Administration · 1965-06-09 · 290 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is a preliminary transcript of Part II of the Gemini 4 (GT-4) flight crew debriefing, prepared by NASA's Spacecraft Operations Branch, Flight Crew Support Division, and dated June 18, 1965. The debriefing began aboard the recovery ship USS Wasp and ended at the Manned Spacecraft Center. In it, astronauts McDivitt and White discuss how the spacecraft systems performed, including the platform, OAMS, RCS and control modes. They also cover operational checks, visual sightings, experiments, mission planning and training, and give recommendations for future crews.

From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 Incident: 6/9/65, North Atlantic Ocean. This document is a preliminary transcript (Part II) derived from voice recordings of the Gemini 4 flight crew debriefing taken aboard the recovery ship, USS Wasp, on June 9, 1965. Part II of this document contains the “Visual Sightings” section of the debriefing (pages 196-224), where astronauts James McDivitt and Edward White describe their observations while aboard the spacecraft.

Open the PDF at page 104 Original source ↗

“white light”53 pages

  • p. 20 14 White McDivitt Whi te McDivitt White McDivitt :iObJFIDE1'4 Tf,t(ilfr pointed toward the…
  • p. 24 18 White a lot of firing , too. I started out checking the Rate Command , so I…
  • p. 25 19 McDivitt White time . It started right after a night cycle . It seemed rather natural to…
  • p. 26 20 McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDiv.itt Let me ask you a question? Yes…
  • p. 27 …White I have the precise times at which the lights came on. It started at about…
  • p. 29 23 White McDivitt White McDivitt That's r ght . It got up to about 90. 100…
  • p. 36 30 McDivitt White McDivitt White I suspect I probably could have gotten down there as easy…
  • p. 37 McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt 31 the first and second joints, because the lights…
  • p. 43 White McDivitt White McDivitt 37 amount of marks on it . I'll say another thing . I…
  • p. 78 …McDivitt White We ' ve already lost some very va l uable data from this flight. We…
  • p. 79 73 MoDivitt White should be set up so that it can record conversa tions on normal…
  • p. 81 75 McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt White Experiment . You could have the tape stop in the…
  • p. 91 …generally with one r ed light on or one white light on, as we got more…
  • p. 92 86 McDivitt White McDivitt and near the end of the mission, we were down to 12…
  • p. 96 90 White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt properly. We got the computer on and got it…
  • p. 97 …The comp l i ght stayed on and I don ' t even think the ·malfunction light…
  • p. 102 96 White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt that. I almost had a heart attack when I…
  • p. 103 97 White Okay, I think that the lighting to me was sur prisingly good. I think…
  • p. 104 …White McDivitt White McDivitt White could make the readings . I think you could put spot lights…
  • p. 105 99 McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt a little auxiliary light like thatl it ought to be…
  • p. 106 …The white light on the little utility light was not satisfactory. We tried to look to…
  • p. 107 101 McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt White You lmow even if we can ' t get something…
  • p. 108 102 McDivitt White switches and lmow where they're supposed to be, you can make sure…
  • p. 109 McDivitt White a little marginal in some cases . I had no diffi culty in reading the…
  • p. 110 104 McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt It wouldn't be something you ' d use very often…
  • p. 135 129 White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt We both have an interesting item on…
  • p. 156 …You need a contrast in color as you get from the White Sands to the surrounding…
  • p. 158 …You need a contrast in color as you get from the White Sands to the surrounding…
  • p. 172 …And over one town we passed in Australia the lights were very , very clear down there…
  • p. 176 168 9.2 Apollo Yaw Orientation White McDivitt White McDivitt Okay, I 'll probably go into…
  • p. 178 170 White McDivitt position , rolled around so that I could just pitch straight up , and end…
  • p. 180 …Do you have anything to add ? White No . Tha t it was pretty straightforward . 9.4…
  • p. 181 …White We started blunt- end into the sun and we got · the scanner ignor e light…
  • p. 182 174 McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt hit the scanner head . It went right out again. It…
  • p. 183 White McDivitt White McDivitt McDiv:i:tt 175 scanner ignore lights . The next step is the…
  • p. 184 176 White McDivitt White McDivitt OO~~FIDEt-4TIAL slightly, and we went ahead and fired t…
  • p. 189 181 White No. They sure didn't McDivitt And even though t he light wasn't…
  • p. 194 …9, 9 Zodiacal Light Check McDivitt I ' d like to have Ed describe this . White Okay…
  • p. 198 190 White McDivitt White White McDivitt White the time. I had to say something. It is…
  • p. 201 J 193 McDivitt White McDivitt White see things . They were small; there ' s no question that…
  • p. 205 197 White McDivitt an optical barrier , practically, between you and the stars . The difference between the…
  • p. 207 199 White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt White No. On the night when we…
  • p. 209 201 McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt Why don ' t I discuss t hat thing that I…
  • p. 210 202 White McDivitt McDivitt White was right over land and was considerably closer to us than…
  • p. 213 205 White McDivitt White McDivitt White and I think we might have taken some stills , but…
  • p. 214 206 cer~FI McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt different occasions. It was during your…
  • p. 215 207 White McDivitt I think we took some good pictures of the clouds. Yes. Well, throughout…
  • p. 216 208 McDivitt White GQ ► •fiJDEN l -JA k~ down. lt' s much, much higher than the…
  • p. 217 209 McDi vitt White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt White I agree. Okay. Do you have…
  • p. 229 McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt 221COt'4FfDEt~TIAL { Did it ever light? First time…
  • p. 231 McDivitt White 223GO t'4 FI t, Et'4TI close to measure. You know it would…
  • p. 236 …TIAL :J White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt White McDivitt this particular light to come b…
  • p. 243 White McDivitt 235 the flight plan nailed down. I think our r.light, though, was somewhat…
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McDivitt
White
McDivitt
White
McDivitt
White
could make the readings . I think you could put
spot lights in there and not get by that prob
lem.
That's exactly what I was going to say . Lights
aren't going to solve that problem .
No, it's just plain bright outside. When you look
back in, even though you have your lights on, it's
fairly dark inside . I personally wasn ' t troubled
by this very many times during the flight . Were
you , Jim?
No, I wasn ' t.
I didn't feel that was too bad . S~ actually, I
felt that the lighting , although not abundant ,
was adequate. I think the actual light ing of the
instruments would certainly be nicer if we had
individual instruments lit up. Oh, ene thing -
several times I would like to have had a flash
Eght in there, something where I could direct a
real beam of light. The little side light& I
thought, were close to being useless . I didn' t
use my little side light, the auxiliary light ,
very much at all.
As a matter of fact , I didn ' t either .
Very seldom . I think that if we're going to have
•Gl>J~LOiMIWs.

Cases discussed

About this file

Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 290 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.