Documents / Official release
This NASA file of astronaut scientific debriefing papers from 1962 collects internal Office of Space Sciences material on the science observations made on early Mercury flights. A February 1962 memo from Maurice Dubin asks for more detail on John Glenn's report of luminous particles and the atmospheric horizon layer. A draft memo concludes that the particles were tied to the spacecraft and were not extraterrestrial. The file also holds a Los Alamos letter that attributes the high haze layer to nitrogen peroxide, and notes on Carpenter's airglow observations.
From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 This file contains memoranda, correspondence, reports, and other materials relating to contemporary scientific interest in investigating the nature of luminous phenomena reported by astronauts John Glenn and Walter Schirra during spaceflight. This collection includes transcripts from NASA interviews and debriefings with both astronauts regarding those observations. It also contains details relating to scientific observations of atmospheric phenomena, including brief descriptions of luminous particles, experiences while aboard spacecraft, and circa 1955 theoretical analysis of meteoric particles entering the atmosphere. Pages 34-35, 55-56, 57-63, 64-113, and 122-127 feature content relevant to the PURSUE initiative.
'I .,. ~cientific Debriefing • . f \ t Did you get any readout on attitudes?~epard: ~ercer: We got good attitudes. On the pictures, ce.n you relate the airg,low band to what you drew on the board? '! .,, ~id you take e:ny exposures into the sunlit sky? (Cpoper: No, I didn't. I was going to try and snap one of this planet but couldn't get the camera out in time. After I once got it out of the equipment locker, the planet was gone. Huch: was the camera easy to use'l Cooper: Yes, after I once got it out of the locker it was easy to use. Huch: Would it be possible to take a picture of the Milky Way? I Cooper: Yes. The last picture that I made was this haze layer when it was so bright. It should be somewhere right near. It was near the vertical coming through the window. Huch: The range of light intensity was very extreme. Cooper: The last exposure I made was of this glow and I think I used a 20 or a 15 second exposure time. Note: A general discussion was carried on at this point concerning the number of exposures and general observations. It is not possible to decipher these comments into usable form. (Radiation Experiments.) Warren: We have some preliminary results I will give to you later. Did you take the chamber out of the dit.ty bag and fasten it on the hatch? Cooper: I took it out of the storage container and fastened it to the hatch on the first orbit. Warren: Could you give me a time estimate? Cooper: I would say within an hour •~fter liftoff • ..., __ .. __ -----i-- --- . ... . I ,.., . '
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 216 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.