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).

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Roger. Cut in.
Every once in a while, a fragment of considerably
higher velocity than the others goes across my
window. But that's very rare.
Roger.
Hey, that's that field of view I saw out my window.
Jack, do you see it now?
Yes.
And, Bob. At least, there - there's no apparent
relative motion between fragments.
Roger. Understand.
I'll take two pictures about a minute apart if I
can. And it'll be Frame 70.
Okay. Frame 70.
And, Bob. This is Geno. My impression is that
they are - flat, flakelike particles. Some may
be 6 inches across. And, although there's no
relative motion between the two, most of them seem
to be twinkling. And I think, for the most part,
they're all moving away from us.
Roger, Gene. Thank you.
Okay. We've got 0180 and 0 on the old thumbwheels.
Okay.
Roger, Ron.
Okay. TRANS CONTROL is ARMED .
. . . two ARMED.
CONTROLLER number 2 is ARMED .
... SECS LOGIC ...