Preliminary Gemini 4 Crew Debriefing, Part II, 1965

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start from.
This was quite easy.
I just had to wait
for the spacecraft to move so that I could see the
horizon in any position, and t hen I went for it .
The yaw reference, though, wasn ' t present when I
got to the horizon, so I ended up level on the
horizon upside-down, but without a yaw reference.
I pitched on down well below the horizon so that
I could look down at the ground. Watching the
clouds go by, or whatever was down below me , I
could pick up the direction of my motion.
So, I
rolled around such that I was pointing down at the
ground, probably 45 degrees plus or minus 20
degrees .
I rolled aroumd until my head came up,
and all I had to do then was pitch back to the
horizon to get to the 30 degree nose-down attitude
for retrofire. This took 2 minutes and 20
seconds .
Now I did this trying to save fuel.
I
could have done it much quicker if fuel wasn' t a
constraint .
Also, I think I learned something
fr om this in that I made a mistake by going
first to the horizon.
I should have pitched down
until I was pointed straight down to the ground,
picked up my yaw as quickly as I could in this