Documents / Hearing transcript
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).
Tape 5/5 00 03 40 01 CMP Okay. LOGIC SECS LOGIC is POWER is ON. CLOSED; SECS ARM are CLOSED; LMP Okay. 00 03 40 13 cc 17, Houston. You have a GO for T&D. CDR Okay. A GO for T&D. 00 03 40 38 CMP Okay. ALIGN. We'll ARM the PYROs. And we'll hit the GDC 00 03 41 00 CMP And maneuver's complete. GDC? No. It's just ... And 0180 and O? On the It's kind of diddling. 00 03 41 19 CMP Okay. DELTA-Vin NORMAL. 00 03 41 42 CMP S-IVB, okay. Okay, switches are all set. LMP Okay; 59 : 30 . 00 03 41 55 CMP Okay. Let's start the DET. 00 03 41 59 CDR Tickity-tick-tickity, Houston. at 59: 30. We're running cc Roger. CMP Okay. 00 03 42 12 CMP Okay. That's LAUNCH VEHICLE SEP, push button. LMP Okay. 00 03 42 19 CMP MC in AUTO. CMP Next? 00 03 42 29 CDR SEPARATION, Houston. CMP Okay, check the other ones off. covers. Okay. And check the LMP They're all ... CMP Okay, I'm going to start the - My gr.,sh, look at the junk! Okay; there's 15 seconds. Pitch her up. Okay, we'll PROCEED on the - -
Not linked to a story yet.
Hearing transcript, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 16 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.