Astronaut Scientific Debriefings, 1962-1963

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.

14
Shoemaker - Any other items on airglow we should take up?
Schirra - We will bring up this other thing I $aw - I guess?
Shoemaker - The cloud (bright area) you saw over Madagascar?
Schirra - Yes.
Dubin - I was wondering on these various effects on the horizon.
. .
You ' make some statements about the blue horizon~-the different
colors.
Schirra - What time is this?
Dubin - This is at 06 44 GMT (See blue book, p. 104). (Now
Report · of, Third U. S, Manned Orbital Flight.)
Schirra ~ This was the beiinning to what Mrs. Cameron has a sketch
of, I believe. . . ,
Cameron - Actually you give two · descriptions here. I believe
they conflict , I assume that one is an expansion of a part of
the other.
Schirra - It is, and as you can see_, it's a time span here where
it obviously is changing as the sun is setting as well. Not
much in time, but my time was pretty fast in relation to sun
sets, I guess.
Dubin - Question is what the heck did you really see?
Schirra - Maybe if I just read it back myself, I can expand
on i t. I'll read it out loud. How's that? I guess we can
pick up right at 0604 33 and I say there is a nice interesting
hor i zon, which rne~nt that I was captured by it. The sun was
off to the left and I would say about 40 degrees. This just