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.
“Gray”5 pages
37 Schirra - I feel that I was looking up at it now in relation to my local horizon. Roman - You were actually looking up at it? Have you any idea how high it was above the apparent horizon at that time? Schirra - That is where I am in trouble, Nancy, because there · is no direct repeated knowledge of what this attitude is. Roman - Well, the other question is ... Sch irra - But I saw a good batch of stars below it which meant that my axis had to be fairly well above the horizon. Roman - Any _structure either turbulent or wave-like? Schirra - No, this was a very soft - we best describe this in clouds as being a cirrus layer rather than a cumulus layer; a stratus would be a better term, I think. Nordberg _- Sort of diffuse? Roman - I am still not quite sure I have the answer to my question then . I ' m not a meteorologist. Schirra - If I were to do it, I'd take a chalk eraser and just ' make a streak across the blackboard, it would be more intense in the cente r of the eraser and then diffused as I got - Roman - But no other structure? Schirra = No other structure. Roman - The reason I am asking this is that it sounds as if it might be related to some other equatorial red airglow which has been · observe d from the ground. This has a distinct wave structure. Schirra - I see. No, I did not see the permanent wave effect or the
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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.