Gemini 7 Technical Debriefing, 1965

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122
9. 0
OPERATIONAL CHECKS
9.1
Apollo Land.mark Investigation
Borman
We should first mention the weather because this casts some
reflection on the whole i dea of Apollo l andmarks as a navi­
gational aid. The weather was the big bugaboo in this
flight as far as achieving any Apollo land.mark photography.
I do not know whether it was the particular t argets we were
trying to get or what. Invariably, there were clouds.
Lovell
As can be seen from the map , anything south of 15 degrees
north latitude in Africa is no good for Apollo landmarks
because it is i nvariably cloudy.
South of 15 degrees north
l ati t ude is invari ably too cloudy for Apollo land.marks.
Borman
Right.
Lovell
All of South America is out .
As a matter of fact everything.
south of 15 degrees north latitude all the way across the
m~p is no good.
We found out that North Africa and South­
west United States and parts of Mexico, as previous crews
stated a long time ago, (that includes Saudi Arabia, Paki stan
Valley) have predominantly clear weather in the morning, but
not in the afternoon.
Borman
The Red Sea area was one of the clear areas all the t i me .
Even the South-west U.S. and Mexico were clobbered most of
the time on our flight .