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.

54
it on. I think they are trying to trace that through. It wasn't
Aldebaran, that ' s for sure.
• Dubin - You say that you never saw your fluorescent numbers on
your watch?
Schirra - No, I did not. This bothered me .
Dub in - Did you look at it?
Sch i rra - Yes .
Dunke l man - Is this some watch that requ ires e xposure to li ght f or
awhi l e?
Sch i rra - Correct. There is another answer to th i s. The ti me
function, meaning just running time, has th e fluorescent, but the
elapsed time that I used on this watch i s just black and whi te.
I wanted badly to get at least the hands coated and this i s a r eal
chore . Very few people do this for you. I would have liked very
much to have had this done, but couldn't ·get it.
DUnke J man - I would sure like to see the CIC lighting people
have a chance to put their two cents into this who l e thing ab out
the lights, for Apollo or something like that.
Schirra - I have gone on record saying that Gemini will -not f l y
until I personally run a lighting mockup on that vehicle a s we l l
as on Apollo . There are many people who know how strongly I f eel
on t his subject.
Gill _- Very good . Very good.
Sch i rra - What I ' m getting at is, if you can get the ligh t out
of the vehicle, you don't need to spend a lot of time adapting.
Gill - Right.