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.
“Headquarters”6 pages
I -41-;Scienti fic Debriefing (General Observations) ,Pr• O'Keefe: I u.:c.dersta.nd the hissing noise was completely -negative. Can you i e sure it was not then'l < Ooo:per: I didn't ever hear it at all. I had good fit~ing ear caps. Dr. O'Keefe: Were you listening for it at the time'l Cooper: Yes, except I had my visor closed and with ~he visor closed you can't hear too much. I Dr. 0 'Keefe: At one p~_int a rumor circulated· in the public mess that you had ...... seen a meteor. Cooper: This was a false rumor. Dr. 0 'Keefe: At one point you said you saw frost on the window. • I Cooper: This is _the mat_erial that turned out to be oil. Paul Lewan: Have you seen the terrain photos'? Have yo:u seen number 8, east coast of Africa'? Does it look this blue'l Cooper : Not quite"' The film has fairly true'reproduction but in several cases it might be a little more blue in film, than it actually is. Paul Lewan: How ·apout the shots over Himalayas'? Cooper: They look fai~~y true to color. Paul Lewan: Where you're goo.ng over the ocean, could _you distinguish different shades of b1ue'l Cooper: Yes, over GBI, E1euthera and Buba and right down the whole island chain, •· you could very definitely tell the shallower water areas~ You could see reefs and green water in some of the lagoons. Not real distinctive green as you might think, \ and you could se~ sand at about its normal color. If you are looking straight down If you're lookingon things the color is more true than if you're looking at an angle. ... at an angle, there is more of a bluish tint. i,. . . • ·;; ' . ~ .
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 216 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.