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
39 could look down at the different angles. Schirra - We had a mirror on there. This permitted me basically to look toward the heat shield. Something like a rear view mirror, except it was a front view mirror in Mercury. But in any case, you almost need - we need something like a dental mirror to move around . I think again you get in trouble with a mirror; I con sidered this. In fact, I had a mirror on my hand which was a flat plate much like the woman's cosmetic mirror. It was about the same size, and when you use a mirror you lose so much just by the fact that you change distances. Your image has been ranged differently. So I found that I didn't have any luck at all. Tennyson - It was just your disorientation. Schirra - That itself was another problem. (Cameron showing Schirra a drawing) Cameron - I have a drawing here of what I think you saw out your window at S hours 20 minutes. Schirra - Oh, really, I'd like to see that, yes .. . . Cameron - It's just the star chart. I tried.... I think this is whe r e you we~e, well, I made a tracing of the thing and slid it (the plast ic slide which represents the capsule window) up (on the star chart) here - here's the horizon and· I tried to guess where you might have been, and I put the width about ... (showing Schirra) you· thought it was - Schirra - Very good. But the thing is you see I could be tilted as well in roll and it would move this field--see what I mean?
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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.