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
, . Scientific Debriefing -9- Bill Armstrong: You get a 30 degree angle view througb'._the window. the top of the window to the bottom, variation of ·.30 degrees. '·' John: How far ·would he have to pitcp down'l Bill Armstrong: He would probably have to be below retroattitudeG to almost have all earth · in the window. Probably about 30 degrees G Cooper: I had a ~-:few comments that I made · on the onboard tape about the . . . "1· . "I am at 4st daylight going ixlto dark" I had been ·looking ,for that flashing · 1 . . . ~ ·beacon. "This light in sight is below me. It is quite a brownish b;rown and considerable ~titude above the ground." In other words I was convinced it was not a light down on_the ground but _it had ·movemento I t mentioned several other items here such as this light being ·visibl_e _among the starso "The ligJ;it is f.1lashing, now. It is· the lighto It is quite I I bright and quite discernible. It appears to be about -10 to l2 miles awayo I'm keeping it exactli in the windpw. About the order ·of a second magnitude .. • ' \. star now." and that time was 05:ll:34. ".The light is sM.μ in sight in .the ··. • • -· . . ;' ~ .; ' ' center of the window. 11 • l • Bill Armstrong: Did you,--acc?rding to -the voice tape it. xruq, have yawed away a _little bit then ·. and then c;:ame .-back.. Did you yaw away and -t?hen •come right back to ~t'l ,
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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.