Gemini VII Orbital Cylindrical Object & Thruster Plume Correlation
Low Earth Orbit over Cape Canaveral / Western Atlantic Sector • NARA RG 255 / NASA Magazine 29-B Frames S65-63722 & S65-63723
During Revolution 3 of the Gemini VII mission on December 4, 1965, Command Pilot Frank Borman and Pilot Jim Lovell photographed a cylindrical metallic-albedo object accompanied by a luminous multi-lobed plume at 301 km (187 mi / 987,500 ft) altitude and 17,023 mph (7.61 km/s). PURSUE Release 01 provides 4K micro-densitometric scans of the original Hasselblad 70mm Orbital Film paired with NORAD Space Surveillance Radar two-line element (TLE) reconstructions. Observers tracking low-Earth orbital cylinders, upper-stage boosters, and bright LEO passes can resolve magnitude +2.5 to +6.0 targets using 15x70 astronomy binoculars[↗] or a plate-solved smart telescope[↗] with satellite ephemeris tracking.
Local Gemma (tier1-local-server-gemma) cross-correlation against 200 NASA CNEOS fireballs rules out atmospheric bolide ablation (4% match) because the 301 km (187 mi / 987,500 ft) track lies 260+ km above the stratospheric airburst zone. TLE orbital propagation shows a 78% match to specular solar reflection off the venting Titan II GLV-4 second stage (7.6 m / 25 ft at 17,023 mph / 7.61 km/s), with a 34/100 kinematic anomaly residual from asymmetric plume photometry. Nearest cataloged NASA CNEOS bolide is cneos-fb-07 (624 km / 387.7 mi great-circle separation).