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
I moved , (Again 1'1 ~ 'i I I .S~ientific Debriefing -36- l\ ; ~ . ~iach: ' From that standpoint, is it better to retro in the da.yl~ft? cqpper: . You could probably do .it at night, but it is preferabl~;- to do it in the day. , ' Njte: ~'he next few comments are not interpretable, but 1t appe,-.rs eom one raised ~ . a ~question about the blue horizon band visible during daylight, Co'pper: This is ·predominantly blue· and if you have land masses or things that . ' , ' you know are not blue - - - but this is about a two degrees thick band. It isn't quite as thick as the band underneath - - - the last layer at night is thicker ' l I . . 1 than this blue band and it is a brilliant blue. Roach: Then, is there some structure above the blue layer? Cooper: I never could see pattern structure above that. It is really not black. This is any time you have earth shine. This is not a real sharply defined - - - There is a little blue gray going thru this area here. The overall band is real' bright pale bluw and just faintly diffuse on this side. (Explanation is made using a sketch at the blackboard.) Question: Is it diffuse on the upper side? Cooper: It is not just a real sharp line or two different distinct colors. It does diffuse very slightly,. Question: .How wide is that band in angle? ,, Cooper: It is about 11iwo degrees. .,. Huch: I understand it gave a little problem in roll and yaw. You said just as the sun was s inking. _ Cooper:. That's right •. Tb.is is where I could tell where the sun had been. back to t hat and I put the gyros to free and went into the automatic mode. using sketch.) Huch: , Wi th reference .to the sunset, do you estimate the time when the Zodiacal light ' sequence was started? '-:----....,..•• p ,--• ..-:-T"'7- ;---
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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.