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.
“Gray”5 pages
. .. Scientific Debriefing -22- (MIT Horizon) Dr. Peterson: The purpose of these pictures is that we are teying to find definite informa.tion."about the earth for Apollo guidance. This is of a group of four pictures taken in four_different yaw directions, one the sun. Is this maneuver an expensive and troublesome· thing to do'l Cooper: It takes control power; ·it takes control fuel, , it takes time. However, it is not real expensive as far as fuel. You have to stay power up. We debated back and forth about 'the most accurate wa;y of making sure we· . get these 90° points. We were a little concerned about accuracy and decided to stay powered up and utilized .the gyros ~o locate the 90° · positions. • But it does take that period of time of power ·to dr;Lve the automatic system; does take that fuel to move around• .,, Dr. Peterson: I noted you mention 25 hours 20 minutes. A1; that ~t there is a hole in the transcript. 25 hours and 26 minutes. , ' · Co0per: I got those at 25 hours and some odd minutes when the moon was set in the west. It was right where ·we had plann~d to get it the first time. We rescheduled them later in the flight if we didn't get them at the original· 1 time. But I took them as planned initial.:cy,. Did those come out all right'l Dr. Peterson: On two of those ~twas possible to locate. the moon. I I ~ not all of them. Bill .Armstrong: Yes, . these are all of them. (Looking ·at p~ctures) 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.