Apollo 17 Transcript, 1972

This NASA document contains excerpts from the Apollo 17 air-to-ground voice transcription from 1972. The crew reports bright, jagged fragments drifting past the spacecraft after S-IVB separation, and later describes a distant flashing, rotating object that Jack thinks is the S-IVB. Gene also describes light flashes he saw with his eyes closed. Other passages cover weather over Hawaii and the Solomon Islands, and a flash seen on the lunar surface north of Grimaldi.

From the source: Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: 1972, Moon. Apollo 17 was the ninth crewed U.S. mission to the Moon, and the sixth to land astronauts on the lunar surface. This document is an excerpt from the Apollo 17 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription, December 1972, highlighting three periods in which astronauts reported observing unidentified phenomenon: a nine minute period on the first day, a three hour period on the second day, and a six minute period on the third day. • Day 00, Hour 03, Minute 34, Second 10 through Day 00, Hour 03, Minute 42, Second 29: o Command Module Pilot (CMP), Ronald Evans, reported observing “very bright particles or fragments” drifting and “tumbling” near the spacecraft as it maneuvered. Lunar Module Pilot (LMP), Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, described the phenomenon as looking “like the Fourth of July.” The astronauts speculated that the phenomenon may be attributable to ice or paint fragments dislodging from a separated component of the spacecraft (S-IVB) but characterized that assessment as a “wild guess.” • Day 02, Hour 18, Minute 42, Second 34 through Day 02, Hour 21, Minute 07, Second 05: o Mission Commander, Eugene A. Cernan, reported difficulty sleeping and described having observed “some sets of the streaks.” He also described an intense light flashing between his eyes, describing its intensity as comparable to that of a train headlight and characterizing it as “imposing.” Over the next three hours, Cernan described observing several flashing, rotating phenomenon that he assessed as corresponding to physical objects in space rather than a purely optical phenomenon. LMP Schmitt also reported observing similar phenomenon, though he again assessed the source of his observation to be a separated rocket stage (S-IVB). At 02:20:55:22, Cernan reported observing two additional distant flashing objects, though he assessed them as Spacecraft/Lunar Module Adapter panels (SLA panel), another separated component of the Saturn V rocket. • Day 03, Hour 15, Minute 33, Second 25 through Day 03, Hour 15, Minute 39, Second 46: o At 03:15:38:09, LMP Schmitt exclaimed that he had observed a flash on the lunar surface north of Grimaldi (crater).

CC Go ahead.
LMP Yes, Bob, what is your -
have it - surface tenns
Hawaii today?
CC Stand by on that.
CC Jack, according to the -
Tape 47/15
analysis chart, if you
analysis chart show for
-
LMP The reason I
Go ahead.
ask is that for using your term -
CC No, go ahead on that, Jack.
LMP I was going to say, using your terminator time as
a partial - mark for where Hawaii ought to be,
Hawaii ought to be, it looks like that cyclonic
circulation at the north end of the cloud bank I
described, approaching that area, would be Just
about on the Hawa - Hawaiian Islands. I'm curious
if they're getting some weather down there now.
CC Stand by right now; I've got my weathennan right
beside me here.
LMP Also, that major front we talked about last night
as being east and south of Japan has progressed
even farther and is, oh, maybe 20 degrees longi
tude - about 20 degrees longitude from the Hawaiian
Islands. And I'm making some guesses on exactly
where Hawaii is.
CC Roger, Jack. We've got nothing adverse in the
Hawaiian area at all. Just a lot of winds , high
winds and surface winds and surface roughness,
but we don't have any bad cloud area in the
Hawaiian area. I'll get the Hickam sequence re
port here shortly, Jack.
LMP Okay, ... a little bit. The - our zero-phase
point is now centered just a little south of the
disturbance near the Solomon Islands. And I see
no distinct change in the intensity of that zero
phase point over what I had talked about a couple
hours ago.