Apollo 12 Transcript, 1969

This NASA document is part of the air-to-ground voice transcript of the Apollo 12 mission in 1969, covering tapes 90 and 93. It records routine exchanges between Houston and the crews of the command module Yankee Clipper and the lunar module Intrepid about state vector uplinks, lift-off time, battery charging and rendezvous tracking. One crew member reports flashes of light and particles that appear to stream away from the Moon. Houston attributes a pulsing AGS display to probable electromagnetic interference, and the crew concludes that the LM tracking light has burned out.

From the source: Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: 1969, Moon. Apollo 12 was the fourth crewed U.S. mission to the Moon and the second to land astronauts on the lunar surface. This document is an excerpt from the Apollo 12 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription, November 1969, highlighting two periods in which astronauts reported observing unidentified phenomenon: a one hour period on the fifth day, and a two minute period on the sixth day. These transcripts contain contemporaneous observations by the flight crew reacting to unidentified phenomenon. • Day 05, Hour 19, Minute 14, Second 58 through Day 05, Hour 20, Minute 12, Second 14: o At 05:19:27:25, the pilot of the Lunar Module (LMP-LM), Astronaut Alan L. Bean, described observing particles and flashes of light “sailing off in space” via the onboard Alignment Optical Telescope (AOT). He characterized these phenomenon as “escaping the Moon.” • Day 06, Hour 00, Minute 21, Second 42 through Day 06, Hour 00, Minute 23, Second 33: o Mission Commander, Charles “Pete” Conrad, described observing floating debris outside the lunar module, which had been illuminated by the module’s onboard tracking light. At 06:00:21:51, Conrad assessed that the tracking light had burnt out because he could no longer see the debris from the module.

05 19 24 11
05 19 24 23
05 19 24 43
05 19 24 52
05 19 25 33
05 19 25 40
05 19 25 41
05 19 25 48
05 19 27 17
05 19 27 20
05 19 27 25
05 19 27 56
05 19 28 25
05 19 28 42
05 19 28 44
05 19 29 10
CMP
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IMP-LM
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Tape 90/4
Page 743
Okay. And Jerry, will you find out what they
want to do about this battery charge, be~~use
. I'm using the bus tics during the rendezvous?
Roger.
Yankee Clipper, Houston. Why don't you figure
on terminating the battery charge at LOS?
All right; I could let it go until I just
before lift-off. That way it might take it
all the way up.
Clipper, Houston. We prefer that you terminate
at LOS on this pass.
Roger.
Roger. That would be one less thing for us to
keep track of prior to lift-off.
Okey.
Say, Houston, Intrepid.
Intrepid, Houston. Go.
Roger. When you look out the AOT in the dark
quadrant? You can see these lights - particles
of light. flash~s of light just seem to come
from - in this case, I'm looking in quadrant 1
which is the left one. It's coming :from behind
me, the left, and they're just sailing off in
space. I was thinking they're dropping from my
water boiler. but it looks like some of those
things are escaping the Moon. They really haul
out of here and just press off at the stars.
Roger.
Yankee Clipper~ Houston with a P22 tracking PAD.
Go ahead.
Roger. Your target is LM; T1 is 139: 57:39;
T2 is 140:02:38; ~outh 05; latitude is
minus 3
Hoger. T 112 -