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
82 just look at the night sky and then again, having a low level source coming up and even if the window is absolutely clean what happens with these eight reflections . Schirra = Sure . Dunkelman - You see, the problem of not lett i ng anything look at the sun or letting that look at the sun look at t hi s i s ve ry important even with automatic satellites . Schirra - Well, I 9 d be very glad to see it (except capsul e window) .. . Nordberg = Okay, can we get a window? Schirra = I think we have got enough us e d capsul e s aroun d. I think mine is on its way to South America though (laughter) . In fac t, its to be there in three days . Shoemaker = I wonder if we have one last question . If not, we should adjourn . Any further questions you ' d like to pose to Commande r Schirra? Dubin = Yes, Commander Schirra, one question, what suggestions do you have for improving the operation over and above what you have already mentioned so far? That's not a very nice question . Schirra = No, you mean, as far as pursuing investigation scientifically is concerned? Dubin = Yes . Schirra = I feel at this point, for example, in Cooper 0 s flight , what we are really trying to do is to get at least man in space for one day . We don 9 t dare compromise that because we need to know how man can hold up for this and we design the capability in the systems .
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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.