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
86 Tennyson - It's good to have somebody else who isn't constrained to party lines. Gill - It's a privilege to meet with you, really. Tennyson - Something that shocks me is that the discussion from Scott Carpenter and your discussion is the picking out of clues from about, heaven knows, how many scientific disciplines from your general experience etc., and integrate them all together and be able to present them; frankly, I just find this very interesting that anybody can do that. The wide range of experience. Schirra - I think it's the opportunities of so many exposures we've had and we have taken advantage of them, and as an example, we can have an audience with you people anytime we call, and if we have questions and this is true throughout the whole pr ogram. I can talk to Von Braun if I'd like to right now. I can talk to a technici an that's working on a nut and bolt on Von Braun's booster right now. We have this prerogative which is very great for us. We are not stuck with the disciplines of crossing party lines or anything like this or going up to the ladder and back down again . We go - we just take a straight path to where we want to get information . It is a tremendous opportunity -for us, and we try not to abuse it, but we use it liberally really. I might add that anytime you have a question, our phones are always available for this kind of thing. r Don ' t ever think we are incommunicado. Shoemaker - Good - that's very good, Commander. I'd like to thank you very much. Schirra - Sure, I was glad to come by. TIIE END
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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.