NASA-UAP-D011, 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-D011
The video plays on DVIDS, the Defense Department's media service.
WHAT THE RECORD SAYS
The government's own description, as released.
During the final and longest flight of Project Mercury, Mercury-Atlas 9 mission (MA-9) Faith 7 Pilot L. Gordon Cooper Jr. describes the brilliant blue of sunrise beneath the haze layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. As he approaches sunrise, he describes small, luminous, brilliant white particles drifting away from the spacecraft. Cooper describes observing “fireflies” after deploying beacons, which are spherical mission-related equipment with xenon strobe lights.
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