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.
“Low Earth orbit”1 page
Sunrlse was observed at about 1m later, while the observation was going on. It follows that the airglow is visible even when the twilight band is very strong. An attempt to observe i t in the day is certainly indicated. In this connection, it should be noted that Capt. V. I. Grissom reported a grayish band at the top of the blue sky layer. (Pesults of the Second U. S. Manned Subqrbita l Space Flight, NASA, GPO (1961). le remembers this layer as narrow and grayish i n color, representing an actual i ncrease in intensity. He po i nted out the approximate position of the layer on one of Lt. Cdr. Carpenter's photographs at the height of 1.7 degrees above the horizon. Grissom may have observed the da ytime airglow. Carpenter did not note any structures, either vertical or horizontal, in this layer. He did not observe it completely around the horizon but believes ·1 l to be continuous all the way. It does not appear possible that this layer can actually absorb starl:ight. Any layer at this level capable of absorbing a noticeable fraction of the light (25i or more) would also scatter light strongly; i t would therefore be a very prominent object on the daylight side. In fact, it is not definitely visible on the photographs of the day side. Thl s i s entirely i. n agreement with Lt. Cdr. Carpenter's impression, namely that the decreased visibility of stars passing through the layer was a contrast effect. A remarkable feature of this observatton is the discrepancy between the eye estimates of 8',.10° for the alt i tudes above the hori zon, on the one hand, and the results of timed observations on the other. The latter i ndi cates altitudes of 2° to 36 . The latter are clearly correct; f or example, Carpenter noted that when one ann of his reti cle was at an angle of 45°, it covered the space between the horizon and the bright band. The crossann is 1.21 centi meters i n length and it is a distance of 26.2 centimeters from the astronaut's eye. At an angle of 45°, i t subtends a vertical angle of about 2°.6.
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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.