Preliminary Gemini 4 Crew Debriefing, Part II, 1965

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47
McDivitt
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Here we had an environmental control system
that was supposed to protect us .
We found
out that the darn thing was overpressurizing.
The first couple of times, to keep the ECS o2
bottle from venting, we vented the cabin it­
self.
I found myself sitting in there vent­
ing this thing with my gloves off and my face
plate open. It began to dawn on me that the
pressure went down inside the cabin at a tre­
mendous rate. If this thing ever stuck open
and I had my gloves off and my faceplate open,
I would be a dead man.
So we made it a proce­
dure to suit up when we were going to dump
this thing. This meant that every four hours
we had to put our gloves on and put our face­
plates down and lock them and get all suited
up just in case this vent valve didn ' t reseat.
Frankly, as much of an inconvenience as it
turned out to be, I think that was a wise
maneuver.
I would never suggest that anyone
vent that cabin again without being fully suit­
ed.
I thi nk there is such a risk involved
that you would be fool-hearty to do it .
For