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.
“Gray”5 pages
I " tcientific Debriefing -47- Yes, th~y do overlap. - They are pretty badly tilted/but they do;. I ; . /'' ' "Janel: Did you have difficulty in seeing Cirrus clouds? Co~d you estimate how ~\, wuch of the surface was covered with Cirrus? ~ qooper: Surprising little of surface was covered with Cirrus clouds. I would guess nbout half. There were some areas where clouds were fairly extensive. Cirrus were biggest portion, about 75% of all -clouds were Cirrus. Question: · Did you see any dust storms? Cooper: At no time· did I note a dust storm. ' I looked fpr them over Africa. One place I thought I might ·find them was over Arabia, but I saw no dust at all. John Boynton: You .mentioned that particles of dust or water were attracted to ,t the wiI1dow. Was this rapid or gradual? Cooper: Very gradual. Numberous little dust particles, a little water and little crumbs. The larger objects didn't seem to be attracted. They just moved slowly •i about. There was less motion after we powered down cabin fan. •Various pieces of dust or crumbs off of sandwiches I had eaten. John Boynton: · Did you note they might have been attracted .to other areas? Cooper: I didn't note any particular pattern. I did note the sun was very very hot through the .window. . The particular pattern of the sun would be hot on my suit. I would feel heat through m.y glove when I touched the window. ... .- .. ,.
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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.