Preliminary Gemini 4 Crew Debriefing, Part I, 1965

Text

This text came with the file. It may have mistakes. When the text and the image disagree, the image is right.

56
White
McDivitt
White
\ McDivitt
I
feet/second there.
Here ' s where the numbers get
a little vague.
I thrusted down at it and I
watched it go for awhile.
I thought sure we 'd
start closing on it again.
We weren't closing,
so I thrusted down on it again.
I must have done
this probably three or four times. I can't say
exactly.
I don ' t remember, precisely, how many times you
thri1sted.
I was keeping my eyes on the booster.
And i t was a lot t ougher to see when it was down
with the ground as a background, I t hought, than
with the sky as a background.
During this period
of t i me its rotational velocity picked up con­
siderably, and during this time Fd checked it and
got eight seconds for a complete revolution.
A complete revolution.
Yes.
This was an estimate.
This meant that in the first three minutes after
we were in orbit the thing had gone up to a rota­
tional rate of 40 to 50 degrees/second.
It seemed
to stabilize at that rate. Its rotational rates
stabilized but I don ' t believe its rotational
mode ever stabilized. It didn't rotate in a plane
as I thought a loµg body like that would rotate.
It seemed to oscillate in just a random
tumbling
-CE7~1DENTIAL