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 46/6 02 18 46 46 cc CMP CC CMP CC CMP CC CMP CC 02 18 47 51 CMP CDR Jack, are you sto - you all stowing the ALFMED now or are you done? What's that, Bob? Are you all done with the ALFMED now, Ron? Yes, I've got to get it to - get the plate moved back down there yet. Okay, Ron - get the blindfold off first so I can see what I'm doing. Roger. I just want you to know. We've got a real long update coming up to you here on the LOI abort charts and that - and it's going to be, probably, a difficult readup. And you're the most familiar with the charts; you probably would want to take them. But whenever you want to take them, they are on - charts on page 3-81, 3-82, and then the cue card for LOI limits. Whenever you want to take them. It will be a lengthy one. Stand by, Bob. Let us get squared away from the ALFMED; then we can get going on that. No, I don't want to hurry you, Ron. I just want you to know what - when - just get yourself com fortable and be ready to take them whenever you want them. It's going to be a lengthy time, though. Okay. Hey, Bob, I'm looking at what - what Jack was talking about; and it's definitely not a particle that's nearby because there is another one I can look at and get a three-dimensional comparison with. It is a - it is a bright object, and it's obviously rotating because it's flashing. It's way out in the distance, as I say, because there are particles that are close by and it's obviously not one of those. It's apparently rotating in a
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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.