Mercury Atlas 8 Audio Excerpt, October 3, 1962
NASA-UAP-D012 · NASA · Oct 3, 1962 · audio · 3:31 · Release 2
What the war.gov catalog says
During the Mercury Atlas 8 mission, Sigma 7 pilot Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Jr. describes observing “little white objects that tend to come from the capsule itself and drift off.” Schirra later also refers to those objects as “particles” and “lathe shavings.” Schirra also describes seeing a burst of light in the window, whose source he cannot identify. He speculates that his observation corresponds with the moment the sun passes below the horizon during sunset.
Transcript
00:00static
pilotI have some pretty stars in sight.
pilotAnd also I have the little white objects that seem to come from the capsule itself
pilotand drift off.
pilotAnd if they are a yaw check, it's fantastic. I suspect that the star I see is
pilotArcturus, but it'd be very interesting if it is neither.
pilotThere is another white object.
pilotSo, our two stars are staying quite still.
pilotThe white object actually looked like it came toward me,
pilotbut it wasn't.
pilotI can actually see the particle there flying off. John described it as a
pilotlathe shaving, that's a very good description of it.
pilotMy rates are now just about zero in all three axes.
01:10silence 01:10-01:20
pilotI still have light in the periscope, of course. I'm looking
pilotstraight up, and yet at this point, it shows that my attitude is
pilotI can't get the couch (?) very well, yeah,
pilotjust about inverted at this point.
pilotAnd my nose is above the horizon.
pilotAs a result, I notice that these particles keep tending after me,
pilotrelative to me, at any time.
01:59silence 01:59-02:11
pilotPeriscope is blacking out rather rapidly at sunset.
pilotIt's almost blacked out completely at this point, and is really not usable.
02:26silence 02:26-03:07
pilotGot a real burst of light in the window, and I really don't know what it is.
pilotAt this point, I should be coming up on a sunset.
pilot5 hours and 15 minutes.
pilotPeriscope is dark. I must be just getting a last look at the horizon,
pilotyet I'm not down on it.
03:29static
The audio is a historical spaceflight recording with some background static and hum.
Written by AI from the files. It can be wrong; check the originals.