NASA-UAP-D011, Mercury Atlas 9 Audio Excerpt, May 15, 1963

Low Earth Orbit·5/15/63

Declassified

Government description

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.

Caption issued by the U.S. Department of War on war.gov/ufo. Verbatim, unedited.

Originating agency

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Record type

AUD

Incident date

5/15/63

Incident location

Low Earth Orbit

Release tranche

Release 02 (May 8, 2026)

Distribution

Cleared for public release

PURSUE = Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters. Records released by the U.S. Department of War on May 8, 2026 are unresolved cases for which the government cannot make a definitive determination, and the Department has invited private-sector analysis.