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.
Scientific Debriefing
Bill .Armstrong: Act~ Gordo, it turned out, it gave you about a half of •
a degree per second in the opposite direction. This was very apparent on th
postfiight record. You can see your ·thruster ·acti~ when you start to pitch
' '
up El.lld then as you come right to the bottom of the curve you can see this
little blip on your rate; and then the attitude started back' the other we;yo
.It was real definite. Something on the order of a half of e. gegree per ·secon
or e. little moreo It was real definite where it occurred. Well what it does
is start your pitch back the other ·~•
·' a:riy thruster action to go ,back 1n the other _direction, to pitch back down .afte~
' I
you deployed. You. went to cage - to retroattitude and the attitudes just
and start back .over. It was real ·clear on the records where it went 1out ..
/
Shepard: Say, in regard to the first question, do you think because you
. '
had th~ earth as background you could Judge d~stan~e, . because you ha~ e ,
as background'l
Cooper: I think possibly so~ Of course it's like an airplane when it·•s '
a considerable distance out. It is almost impossible to judge the distan
awe;y. You can talk yourself into believing it -is almost any distance fro
I
you, ,. And when it gets .
on 1n closer you really have a bit
. m?re perspective
on ito I did feel that I had almost Judged the distance on that first t
In fact I didn't even "!:>elieve that was it when .I first saw ito t cou1tln't
• I I•
, . ." think of anything ·else that it could be but it was just solid lighto ~d -~ {_ 1
-, ' . . •·,. • . . ., i .. • . ;r. ~ t ... _.., ··~~ ,[!, '"'
it turns -' out looking back now 6n it, · I -am .sure this was because_the s~. '. :~- ::· -~~ .~~' . .... . ,, Not linked to a story yet.
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.