Preliminary Gemini 4 Crew Debriefing, Part I, 1965

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66
GOt\fPID Etft+AL
White
McDivitt
White
McDivitt
and I thought at least we were going to get to see
where the thing was.
And all of a sudden the
booster came out just like that, and you could
see it.
The lights disappeared and there was the
booster. It was ·2 or
3
miles away, I'll bet .
You asked me there and I estimated 1 1/2 miles.
So, it had gotten that far away in such a short
time, and it was down .
I think what really gave
me the clue that we were losing it again was that
I had it on the horizon and it had sta~ted going
down below us.
Right. It looked like it was about 30 degrees
below -­
It started going down again.
And I could see it
was coming down below the horizon, so I knew that
I wasn't right with it.
But I wasn't really sure
how far away I was so I did thrust a couple of
times--a foot/second or so--to make sure I always
had a closing velocity with it.
And finally I
got the thing down.
It was down so that when it
came out it wasn't directly below me ; it was out
in front of me and down again.
And like Eli said,
I guess it was down about 30 degrees.
White
That's what I ' d estimate.