Documents / Official release

Gemini 7 Technical Debriefing, 1965

National Aeronautics and Space Administration · 1965 · 222 pages · text from the file's own layer

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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  • p. 6 …13 Simul ated net work simulations ...•..••••••• 206 14.14 Ne t work s imula tions .............•..••••••• 206…
  • p. 12 2 1.5 ECS Borman ECS worked fine. We had no trouble with ECS at all…
  • p. 25 …It worked out very nicely before the g's started building up again on second stage…
  • p. 27 …Toe lights on the booster worked fine. 3.4 Post station-keeping Borman We did not…
  • p. 29 …Lovell We tried but the docking light just did not work. :Borman I suppose because,a…
  • p. 34 …The lights were still working. We called it out and t~ ground got readings on this…
  • p. 35 25 work we did without suits on. Lovell Right. We took the s/c out of…
  • p. 36 …Borman It worked fine and we got right back up to 250 lbs. Lovell That is…
  • p. 44 …Control system, the RCS worked perfectly. It just worked beautifull y. 5.5 .Tii::1. Retro…
  • p. 48 …b~ck uu angl es--everything was working just l ike a charm anrt then I…
  • p. 49 …i t was r.o rrohlem . . .It worked out t:'ine , ano I jus t l…
  • p. 50 …the ra.te needles, if' they are working, to hold position, because you can't see…
  • p. 51 …who did that but that was good work on the ground following up that computing, and…
  • p. 52 42 So that was very good work on the gro-.md ' s part. Lovell It looks…
  • p. 59 …And Jim then opened--The 40K ba.rostat worked fine. 6.8 Communicatiol_!!! Borman And we…
  • p. 60 …up the snorkl e; the way that works, the snorkl e draws air through t he…
  • p. 62 …tions-maybe the Auto Cats weren't working or some thing. Lovell Air Boss should have…
  • p. 66 56 ann doing the blood pressure work. And that compl icates the recovery phase of it…
  • p. 71 …Ile helped and it came right open, worked very wel l . We had the suit on…
  • p. 72 …We better grab it and start working, modifying it ; to make it acceptab l e for…
  • p. 74 …W:ach time it worked just as advertised. Daytime alignrnent,of course,was no prob em…
  • p. 75 65 SF.F worked perfectly. BEF worked perfectly. ORB RATE s eemed to be fine , We…
  • p. 76 …Borman The source temper ature worked fine throughout the flight.
  • p. 77 …It crune right ba ck up , and the system worked just exactly as advertised. The prope1…
  • p. 79 …We heard the solenoids working. When we went to DIRECT we could feel we did get…
  • p. 80 …We a l so used it in the ini tial phases of reentry, and it worked…
  • p. 81 …The scanners worked great except at sun rise and sunset. Lovel l They woul d l…
  • p. 84 …The PUISE mode wa.s used in the reentry prior to guidance initiate, and it worked…
  • p. 85 …No comments on thruster f iring, worked fine. We shut the RCS system down initially around…
  • p. 92 …When we were up working and opera.ting, we noticed that the temp erature level in…
  • p. 94 …The cabin pressure r egu lator worked perfectly, it never worked at all . Lovell That is…
  • p. 95 …sed on it so tha.t it worked quite well. It st!cy"ed in the…
  • p. 96 …The quantity measuring system worked fine. The flow rates were adequ&te . I just ca;nnot…
  • p. 98 …the water out of t he system, and that worked also. We did notice that during
  • p. 99 …I suspect that the evaporator might have worked that night. We men tioned this to the…
  • p. 101 …The drink gun worked as advertised. One thing I would mention is the fact that this…
  • p. 104 …The procedure that we worked up for operating
  • p. 105 …Lovell So that worked very well. Borman Beacon Control was no problem. We didn't use…
  • p. 108 …Louis, and they kept them working f or l onger than they should have. Fuel cel…
  • p. 109 …as I a.m concerned, was great work by the ground. The main batteries held constant…
  • p. 111 101 Borman Borman The MDU worked perfectly the entire flight. Computer modes, PRELADNCH, ASCENT, CATCH-UP…
  • p. 112 …Borman The alti meter worked fine. The only problems we had with the altimeter was when…
  • p. 115 …Lovell It should be a red light for night work. In the day time you don…
  • p. 116 …Lovel l I turned mine on once to see if it worked. Borman The flashlight was…
  • p. 119 …thought we were going to, for night work. It gets your eyes accustomed to the night…
  • p. 121 …I don't know , it worked all right toward the end, Jim. I f you get…
  • p. 122 …GT-5 and I think it is working out very well. If there is any derogatory…
  • p. 123 …It worked fine. Lovel l When we first started training for the flight , there always seemed…
  • p. 124 …We could clean them off and put them in the bag and it worked great. Lovell…
  • p. 130 …We would get up the next day , go to work , and it kept us regular. It…
  • p. 151 …It was ju.st like the wa;y the simulator worked. It was just fine. Very…
  • p. 153 …hust l ed and he did his work. He made sure that we knew what we…
  • p. 156 …I thought i t was quite a bit of data and work t o do in…
  • p. 157 147 never worked and we fooled around with it for hours trying to ma.lee it…
  • p. 158 148 nothing else to say about the D-5 except the equipment did not work. Lovell…
  • p. 170 …The window is an area which we are going to have to work on. Borman As…
  • p. 175 …Nowt they will have to check it to see how it worked. Lovell We did :just…
  • p. 177 …Lovell Obviously, it did not work. :Borman So far as we know it did not make…
  • p. 182 …We really had to work to get it out. Borman But again, thi s is one…
  • p. 185 …But ,when we introduced GT-6 and the rendezvous mission, the a.mount of experimental work…
I
Authority:
NW 91526
\
GEMINI VII
TECHNICAL DEBRIEFING
December 23, 1965
NOTICE: This document may be exempt from
public disclosure under the Freedom of lnfor•
mation Act (5 U.S.C. 552). Requests for its re
lease to persons outside the U. S. Government
should be handled under the provisions of
NASA Policy Directive 1382.2.

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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 222 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.