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.
“Tibet”2 pages
Scientifi c Debriefing -33- l l ' It wasn't so distinctive as to move back on to it. It was very faint. ' Cooper: 1, 'l • '4,nd definitely lighter than the sky. It was picking up some light of.•some type, "'" -'j t was light in contrast to the sky • • 'ick Day : Could you see this better out ot the corner of your eye? C\'poper: Yes. Sort of that type of thing. I'm almost certain· that this was over South America, just coming up on ·to the northeastern part of South America. It was around 50 degrees West and about zero degrees of latitude. Roach: This reminds me of what Mr. Schirra saw off Madagascar. Cooper: He saw .it off North Africa. It seemed to be ·quite extensive but not .well defined. I-twas rather diffused but not covering the whole earth. Roach: Could you tell us what happens when you pass from day into night, around twilight? . We are interested in horizon effect after sunset • . \' (Cooper draws some more pict~es.) Cooper: You never tire of looking at the sunsets. As the sun begins to get downI towards the horizon it is very well defined and not diffused as it is 'when looking It is quite whitethrough the atmosphere, and it is quite difficult to look at. and as i t gets on down to where the sun begins to impinge on the horizon line it does give ·a spreading effect. The sky is getting quite dark here and you get the1 I . impression of blackness up here. (Illustrating.) The layer is bright orange· color and light spreading out in this direption••• As the sun begins to go down it is replaced by this' bright gold orange. It extends out ·for some way. It defines the horizon line fairly well at this ·time. The sun ' does begin to get this flattened effect. Roach: What was it'·s maximum flattening? . \ Cooper: I never got too much. It appears to get down part way below the horizon /' n
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.