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.

33
would prove that the stars well could be seen going through the
sam ,, traverse. This thing I saw - let's just call it the smog · belt -
"Ii '
on this southern pass, to go back and recap the sensation that
brought this to mind which is not brought out here other than the
· "'
fact that I can identify what I saw. I was coming over a land area.
(I think I better take a second and break out my orbital map which
I have here.)
O'Keefe - If you have the tape, we might replay that.
Schirra This would be better because some of the nine hours
there, I have not identified carefully enough, .and I should- have,
by going back over the tape and these areas of interest - I thin k we
should listen to the original tape again. Let's get down to · where
we were.
Cameron - Larry (Dunkelrnan) has listened to it at the Cape, I think.
Dunkelman - Did you see wh~t I call normal airglow at night?
That is the soft white band.
Schirra - Yes, I did.
Dunkelman - All right, yes, that's important because I think ' late r it
will help.
Cameron - Was that the thing you saw?
Schirra - This is distinctly different and this, I think, we identified
in our earlier discussion (speaking of the use of the term airglow).
Dunkelman - Fine.
Schirra - I had moonlight as well, but I could definitely see this faint
white effect.