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 46/7 CC 02 18 49 02 CDR 02 18 50 13 SC CMP CC 02 18 50 58 CDR CC CDR LMP CDR CDR very rhythmic fashion because the flashes come around almost - almost on time. And it's as we look back at the Earth, it's up at about 11:00 about - oh, maybe 10 or 12 Earth diameters. I don't know whether that does you any good, but there is something out there. Roger. We don't doubt it, Gene. And we might work out a set of gimbal angles or something here; maybe we can get a look at it through the optics. Okay. And I - I I just want to emphasize that it's definitely not - not one of these particles that tends to look like a star out there. It's something physical in the distance. (Laughter) Oh, yes. thing off. Yes, guess I am. Okay, Gene. If you can call up a NOUN 20 so we know the spacecraft attitude, and if you can reference the object you're looking at out of your window, with - with respect to body axis and let us look at your - your - give us a mark, somehow, and give us your NOUN 20s, we can try and get a tie-in and start locating - locating this object down for you. Okay, I'm looking it out - looking at it out the center window - the hatch window - and I'll give you a hack when it crosses the XX axis at the center window; and I guess it's up maybe 45 degrees. Okay, give us a hack and we're copying your NOUN 20s right now. Okay, Jack says pitched up about 30 degrees but - - No. 45, because - Yes, he agrees. It's 45 degrees pitched up, and I'll give you a hack when it crosses the XX axis. Okay -
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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.