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
57 Schirra - These things you canvt define by numbers. In spite of what my philosophy was for this flight you can't resist making scientific observations . That's taped? I think it's legal. Gill = That ' s what I. thought -- You wouldn't be human if you didn't . Norqberg = I would like to get away from the horizon now for a moment. This is going to clouds . There have bee n reports by aJ:.1 .f:i ve of you on seeing cloud patterns and the like; is there any good indication when you look down of on de pth cloud? Schj.. r f~ - Very much so . You can get Paul Backer (try Charles Coler, MSC, better) to give you the Weat her Bureau photos I too~ . It 's fantastic what you can see . It is the meteorologist's dream ,~t;, to see this depth, cumulus effect , high cumulus, etc. As an example, I SqW the Sierras, I could very definitely see the rising terrain . I was very much pleased. I can best say this by s~ying, if you ' ve flown at 30 thousand or 40 thousand feetp which you must have , in a jet transport, you see this of course . Now, if the horizon itself is not visible to you when you are looking more towards the surface of the earth, if the curvature of the earth is not visible , you feel that you are at about 50 thousand feet . Nordberg - And is this because of some sort of stereoscopic view that you can still see shadows and brightness? Schirra = I think you take every cue that you 've got and you d~fferentiate colors by grays, blacks, whites, but there is no doubt in your mind tha~ you see depth and there is one striking picture, this Weather Bureau picture~ that shows ten different types of cloud structure . One is a big towering cumulus, almost a cumulus ·•·
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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.