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.
~ $cienti f ic Debriefing -45- ~ i ~ ti 1 t real rast·. I could see them move right on out. In a matter of 4 or 5 secondsi \'O i they would be as far away as the other end of the room. Some you t, ~t>uld see for maybe as long a.s 30 or 40 seconds. ',; ~estion: Do you mean back from you or back along the :t'light path7 1 C~oper: I mean back the actual flight path. I Dr. Voas : Were these paths actually curved? You're of course familiar with the fact that .as things go backward they appear to converge . Did they actually seem to curve in? Cooper: If I would be sitting facing this way, the ones out of the left yaw thruster would move right out and move directly back along the flight path; the ones out of the .right one would go out in front of me and would turn back. John Boynton: Did you note any difficulty in identifying lunar features? Cooper: I couldn't :9-istinguish anything on the moon. It seemed considerably ' ' brighter. And seeme.d to have more light. I couldn't really distinguish anything. Roach: Would it be practicl.e to have binoculars aboard? Cooper: I think it would. The moon was much clearer than on the ground. Huch: Could you see the earth shine on the moon7 Cooper: The moon w~s f'uller when it was settil:lg than at other times during the night. I never realized that before just now. But it seemed to be almost full when it was setting.,• But on the night side there was only a thir~ of the moon. How about that now. , The moon was almost f'ully round when it was setting. I think the :pict ures will show it. Roach: That could be earth shine. Cooper: That's right. It is a pale color, of course, in daylight. Dr. Voas : Did it appear to you normal in brightness on the day side7 Cooper: Yes, it was just a lightish blue color. --------------.---- - •• : 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.