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 /I Scienttfic Debriefing -42- 'I~ i! ;J I' ;1 l?aul Lowman: When you were over the daep ocean could you see FY evidence of currents' o.t the coast of Africa or the coast of South America. Did you/ see different colors? i4 j gooper: There was some slight difference in color.~ ' I couldn't determine a pattern ;; ~d couldn't determine what it was.· I thought it might be'wave patterns. '\ Paul Lowman: Were there different colors going over fores~ areas, over Africa? Were t here different shades of green? Cooper: Not too many. They looked to be a blue-green instead of a pure green. Greens didn't come through too well. They were somewhat diffused with this blue color. Paul Lowman: Over the Himalayas, shot number 12, was the green true? Cooper: Yes, fairly true. Shepard : I think w~ should get weather records and corrilate the color with the moisture content . / Cooper: Did you get the list where I identified the pictures? Paul Lowman: Comparing with these rocket photographs over in El·•,Paso · area, do you recall looking there or to we~t over Arizona? Cooper: I didn't. I noted I was over this area. It looked familar. I had the feeling in looking out I was right over the Mexican Border. I don't recall just what gave me this f~eling. Soules: There is quite a bit of detail in IR photos. Cooper: Just before that I noted the town of El Centro and the air base. II noted one little dry lake area east of there. I kept trying· to see Muroc Dry Lake and Rosemond up north but neve:c :did see those, but saq several dry lakes. I saw one very clear. It was not a large one. It was about due east of Salton Sea area. (. ~. -. Paul Lowman: Could you:,see Biggs Air Force Base. Cooper: I didn't notice Biggs at all, in fact, I couldn't see the main part of ... ,.
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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.