NASA · NASA-UAP-D020
Gemini V Technical Debriefing, Part 2, and the Rendezvous Pod Sightings (1965)
This is Part 2 of the Gemini V technical debriefing of Gordon Cooper and Charles "Pete" Conrad (1965), the volume that carries the Visual Sightings and Experiments sections deferred from Part 1. The relevant content is the crew's tracking of the Rendezvous Evaluation Pod (the REP, a NASA-deployed object with a flashing light), their discussion of satellites and man-made objects in orbit, and a single object during reentry the crew judged to be their own retro pack or adapter. One brief observation, an object Cooper and Conrad saw while drifting and "never could identify," is the only item the crew left open, and they themselves suspected it was a satellite.
Key excerpts
“We saw it until the light burned out. It was never far away from us. During five night cycles it was close enough that the flashing light illuminated the spacecraft. [...] when we turned around and actually saw the REP it was very close. (p. 42)”
“Satellites. There was only one time when Pete and I thought we saw something and we didn't have time to identify it. We were in drifting flight and we never could identify it. I don't even know if it was a satellite. (p. 154)”
“There was some object way behind. [...] It was some object, a large object, reentering behind [...] it could have been the adapter burning up. (p. 180)”
Alternative hypotheses
The tracked objects were the deployed REP, the booster, and known hardware
most probable, and the documented explanation).
The single unresolved drifting-flight object was an uncatalogued or unresolved satellite
The reentry "large object" was a genuinely separate craft
least probable).