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.
“Pacific Ocean”1 page
61 Schirra - No, that was only during this area. This could best be described as the eastern half of Australia. Dubin - Did you notice any lightning while looking down - you couldn't see the flashes away from the capsule? Schirra - No, oh no, no, I didn't get any light fed into the capsu le. It was just my eyes that captured this light. Dubin - In the daytime did you also see lightning the same way? Di d your ... Schirra - I don't recall having seen lightning in the daytime. I t 1 s a good question, though, and I don't recall it. I'm sure I woul d have noted it if I had seen it. Nordberg - One question, that I am sure you can't answer because of the orbit of your vehicle, but it's of tremendous importance to th e geological satellite people, and this is, the distinction of clouds and ice and snow. I know, you probably never went over snow or ice. Schirra - I looked up at the Sierras when I was on the second or third orbit - we can pin this down - and I was talking to John Gle nn about somebody water skiiing on the Salton Sea, and at this time, it was amazing how much I could see, because this area is practica l ly crisp, clear air in . the desert, and I lived there for a number of years, so I know that. I could look all at the Sierras and I could see snow - capped mountains up there. Nordberg - But no clouds of course. Schirra - Not, not - well - on the other side of the Sierras, westward there was this terrible fog belt, and I do recall saying sometime I may fly over the Pacific and see the Pacific. I have
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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.