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.
“King”1 page
Scientific Debriefing -1- Cooper: .Almost. Almost as it began to get dark. Of course it gets dark Just like that. Zam it gets dark~ I had Just,--it was dark earth background and as I say 'lI13 first teeling on at,eing it was definitely coming :f'rom below_ j very very slowly. As I watched it was getting higher in 'lI13 line of sight to the I ·earth. In other words as I ·was holding -the earth on .a fixed place1ton the window this was coming u~. It was · coming up in relation to me, and was finally ·up to 'lI13 level. And ·.as I saw it coming up it was solid light. My first though. on it was -that it looked Just like th·e missiles that I have seen . I , ' • • • • I • ' ~ launched at night :f'rom Cape C~veral; when rou 're t:cying at night at a·high·• altitude. and see them launched. It didn't have the same glow but it· was ....., • ' • • ' .. ' • ' ':,I •• • • ·1 I' - very· very bright, and solid and <seemed to becoming up. ,, •' Bill Armstrong:_ That is something else we checked into• . It would have be~--;~ impossible for this light to have been steady_for -you. It is neceSS_!ll'Y to , / ' fully charge the condenser and then get a quick discharge. •,· • Cooper: That's why I think .it mat have been the suns~ine on it Because of t~e altitude we were both at, the sun ·would be shining on it at that point. I had Just gone •into :the night side.~ Even though i~ was dark • I ' .. • . I if I had yawed around to zero _yaw it ·would have been in ·. the bright sun.,. ~ f • • • ' I I
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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.