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.
“Nevers”23 pages
26 Schirra - Correct, that's when I came into it. O'Keefe - What was the height of the layers at this time - 66 kilometers, is that right? Schirra - Right, that's what I was saying. I hope we can hold Mercury meaning that I'd like to see it · go through this and I did not know that I could, but obviously I proved that I could; I did. This was quite a surprise. Didn~t you say, Jocelyn, that there aren't many people that have seen Mercury sets? Gill - Very true . Mercury, (the planet) · period . Very f ew people know that it exists. O'Keefe - Can I point out that you used the word · airglow just in general terms, a faint, glowing light seen · from the · atmosphere without your - What you called the airglow is not what is technically know as the airglow. Schirra - Yes, any time we use airglow I don't use it as we professionally talk about airglow. I was using it merely as an escape clause. Dunkelman - There is one other point there. One isn't sure just in what plane these phenomena took place . They may have been ahead or behind this plane (of the spacecraft). We have to think of this ... The 66 kilometers might indeed be reflec ted as something that had been before this point, you see. Nordberg - (Comment inaudible). Schirra ~ My local vertical would be this hand as I show it and, of course, 40 degrees to the left where the sun and
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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.