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).

Tape 46/5
02 l8 44 40 CDR Okay, I just wanted you to
we saw them. That's all.
- just told them like
CC Roger.
CDR I will say one thing, though; no question in my
mind but that they're there. Last trip I took,
I guess I just wasn't looking for them or paying
any attention to them. Maybe they were there and
I ignored them because of other things. But they're
there.
LMP Okay, all you flash bugs down there - or flash
bulbs I guess is the word - frame 50. I just took
four pictures to show - two on the side and two
on the bottom - to show the position of the ALFMED,
and one of them of each set was focused on the
ALFMED. The others were focused on the - the
other set was focused on the struts.
CC Roger, Jack.
LMP And when you don't have anything else to do, why
don't you have somebody predict where the S-IVB
is. I think I've got her spotted - behind us and
above us with respect to the Earth and our travel
from it.
CC FIDO just went
get working on
out
it.
and shot himself, but we'll
LMP Oh, don't worry about it. Shoot. I thought you
guys might have an idea off-the-cuff there.
CC No, what's humorous on this, Jack, is they have
really been working on that S-IVB impact point -
and they've really been - it's been a - a real
difficult problem for them so far.
LMP I'll tell you, I bet you Ron could give a star
sighting on it (laughter). I looked at it through
the monocular and sure looks like the S-IVB.
CC Jack, we're not doubting you at all.
probably start cranking it right now.
We could