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.
“Tibet”2 pages
• 6 is about the best way I can describe it. I could see more stars, as Scott Carpenter described it, when back on th~ surface of the e art h and many, many more stars in an airplane cockpit than in or bital flight. Roman - You could see more in an airplane? Sch i rra - Yes. So in the debriefing of the flight I stated that this is not a problem for pursuit of Mercury flights. It is a p r ob lem for pursuit of space observation and with the Gemini ve hic le, we have so1v~d th i s by having the windows properly covered and also we hope so - well, Gemini doesn't have an escape r ocket for one, which helps us, Now on Apollo, we are plus or minus on whether we can afford the weight of having window cove r s, but if we do, it does have an escape rocket. If we have covers, then these windows should be protected. And better, be caus e we will need the stars on this particular mission. But to go back and try to cover the Mercury window at this late date would be p r ohibitive hardware-wise and schedule - wise. O' Ke e fe = What would you cover it with? Schi r ra - First of all for Gemini, we have no problem. There is no tower · rocket . With Apollo they had window shutters the last time I saw the mock - up which is not at all static. It is quite dynamic even though it hasn't flown. How this will be done I don ' t know, but I think this is a requirement. I don ' t even think it; I know it is a requirement for Apollo. O'Keefe - You don ' t think there is a possibility of putting a thin - say, some transparent grease over the window - which would come
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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.