Astronaut Scientific Debriefings, 1962-1963

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t Sci entific Debriefing
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you say why you saw such small items?
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I was coming :f'rom Houston the other day in a 102 and I not ed I
coulcln't see nearly as clear around ·40,000 feet, particularly in one area
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. that I was in. There was · a lot of haze and it .was quite humid and I couldn 't
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disti nguish things on the ground very well but yet when I got into the west
coast of Florida and got into an area that was somewhat clearer, at t he same
altitude I could see many things.
I think again, that it depends on how much
humidity _you have and how much haze is in an area.
I passed right over the
vicinity of Los Angeles and San Diego and never saw them at all.
I waoo't ,
very surprised.
I could see where they were but I couldn't see them.
I
passed right over Miami and Miami Beach and I could see that there was a
t 'own there. . Ther~ was a lot of build up and civilization.
I could see
the streets but the buildings were not very distinct.
But yet over areas
of El Centro:·and the Salton Sea and ·the dry lake areas I could see tremendously
greater detail, 8J1.IJ. individual roads.
Over the Himalayas, up in Tibet, of
course there you'r~ above a good portion a certain amount of the atmosphere
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I suppose, I was really surprised: what I could see.
I found some real
detai ls and little, villages with maybe 20 or 30 houses I suppose, stood out
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very distinctly. You .could estimate the number of houses and if a house was
individually away f'rom ahythirig else I guess against the right color
background, the yard, I could discern individual buildings.
I saw a number
of t hem with smoke1 coming out of the chimney.
There was snow on this upper
very sandy blowy, dusty; Tibetan are.a.
I could see a lot of lakes some partial.ly.y
f'rozen over and some f'rozen solid.
The visibility was tremendous.
I could
vehicles that ,:;t assumed were trucks.
I could see them kicking up ' dust.
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