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.
18 Schirra - Yeso Now as we progressed in time to the second drawing, the sun has now really set and the reds and yellows (in the drawing) are fine ooo now just getting the afterlight ooo that 9 s the ragged effect I saw o ooo Schirra - This isn 1 t as thick as that grey to black band as I saw it o We are stuck with a small circle (radius of curvature used in the drawing) and I had a big circle. Dub i n - Okayp could you re - draw it on the board the way you saw it? Schirra - Al l it is is a straight line with a slight curvature to it o I had a broad angle of view, but the whole thing is flattened out o I don 9 t see that much curvature at allo O' Keefe - (to Mrso Cameron) Put in that remark about this band is too narrow? Schirra - This is too wideo (indicating drawing) It would be the grey to black (band)o Shoemaker - It faded out more rapidly in proportion to the white band? Schirra - It was definitely not something you would like to make with a compass o Cameron - Narrower and wider ooo I tried to indicate that, but as to scalep I didn ' t ooo I was just trying 0 0 0 0 8 Keefe - We made a first try at it ooo Schirra - (Reading in the Blue Book) "I will bring up the fingertip light o" Th is will clue you o This will make it
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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.