Preliminary Gemini 4 Crew Debriefing, Part I, 1965

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177
07COt~ft0ENftAL
McDivitt
White
McDivitt
White
McDivitt
we !leeded to close the hatch, just as we sat
there and said we might need during the SAR
of thfl spacecraft in St . Louis.
I think the
attachrnl'9nts of the bat' and the cable to the
spacecraft sho~ld probably be at least doubled
in strength, so there just isn 't any question
in the pilots' minds or the engineers' minds .
I guess the eng:ineers were co::winced that
you didn ' t have Jim and I co!'lvinced that those
tw~ attachme!lt points--.
We've seen it break too many times, I think.
We've broken the bar and we've broken that
atta::)hn:ent point. I ha::!. actually physically
twisted the attachment right off the spacecraft
up in the zero-g airplane.
I certainly wouldn't
have put my full strength into it if I knew
my life depended on that attachment. It should
be ma.de absolutely foolproof.
Well , that was t l,'.e point I was trying to make
earlier when I said I was pulling as hard as
I could.
Then I said that I really wasn't
pulling as hard as I was capable of.
You did::1 1 t have confidence in that attachment.
I didn't really think that I shouln p~ll O!l it