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
Sci~ntific Debriefing -3- had not completely set; !')11-sure 1'113' ·retro pack .area was in the eunligh~• -,. , . I'm sure that is what I saw glowing,--was the sun reflecting ·off' of it.. ' . AJ.though I had, not seen it tram·previous viewing OD tbe day side or the night _si~eo McKee: When you didn't see it OD the first night side, did ~ou have any personal feeling that the light' wasn't ~hing? Did you correct your 1 ; 1.· attitude when you didn't see .it or· did you have any feeling what the problem .··:. F,.. ~ ...,, ., , - • I • l •, • 'I- - • •~ -, • ' , was? ,. • -,-~ ;' _·•: ... .,~ '-.. .. - Cooper:. I Just don't have any idea. I kept doubting Jey"Sel~~ • This was the first time of course that I had ever tried aligning to small end forward, . •. . .·,.'., a180° yaw -as weJ.call it and of course aligning on the night sideo I begaxi, I . . / 'to doubt that I was aligned properly, I went to the star charts and rechecked , • • ., " r !' r and found 1n fact that I was not quite aligned correctly at· first . . ·But then ..• :•..:, 1 ,,, ¥ ,, ~ I did double check ' and found that I was --- I'm sure several times thru the ' .·,· >.'.--~ i ..: • ~ - • " • t • , l't J ') • f •"''" night I was aligned exactly ·on and in using the horizon .line J~t about 1n : ,,: • • , ,1• ~. •. I , . . .the middle of the window even moving up and down almost ,.invariably•.. - -- • don't have any idea why I didn't see it. Bill .Armstrong: You .did change your ·attitudes? ·That was one of·the th . . I wanted to Knowo• I?o you remember at the beginning of t~e night phase, . you first start looking : low and then toward th~.'·eni· •• ~ o/ -did·. • ' ' . ust sort of scan the area or vb&:/
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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.