NASA-UAP-D010, Mercury Atlas 9 Audio Excerpt, May 15, 1963
- Kind
- Audio
- Agency
- NASA
- Incident date
- 5/15/63
- Location
- Low Earth Orbit
- Released
- May 22, 2026
- Record
- NASA-UAP-D010
The video plays on DVIDS, the Defense Department's media service.
WHAT THE RECORD SAYS
The government's own description, as released.
Approximately one hour and 41 minutes into the final and longest flight of Project Mercury, Mercury-Atlas 9 mission (MA-9) Faith 7 Pilot L. Gordon Cooper Jr. notes that he sees “John’s fireflies,” referring to John Glenn’s term from the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission. NASA later determined that the “fireflies” are attributable to frozen condensation separating from the spacecraft body. The white, green-hued appearance of this phenomenon results from sunlight reflecting off frozen condensation.
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