NASA-UAP-D2, Apollo 17 Transcript, 1972

# Editorial Summary: NASA-UAP-D2, Apollo 17 Transcript, 1972

During the Apollo 17 mission to the Moon in December 1972, astronauts Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, and Ronald Evans reported observing unidentified phenomena on three separate occasions over the course of their three-day journey. These observations were recorded in the official air-to-ground voice transcription and have been declassified as part of the U.S. Department of War PURSUE Release. The astronauts were trained observers operating sophisticated equipment in space, and their accounts represent direct witness testimony to phenomena they could not immediately identify.

On the first day of the mission, as the spacecraft maneuvered near the Moon, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans reported observing "very bright particles or fragments" drifting and tumbling near the spacecraft. Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt described the sight as looking "like the Fourth of July," with large bright objects visible on his window. Evans characterized the fragments as "very jagged, angular" pieces that moved slowly. The astronauts speculated about potential sources for these observations. Evans suggested they might be ice chunks or paint fragments dislodging from the S-IVB rocket stage, though he explicitly characterized this assessment as "a wild guess." The phenomenon persisted for nine minutes, and Evans attempted to photograph the fragments at different camera settings. As the spacecraft's maneuver was completed, the fragment field became "essentially static, except for very slight tumbling within the fragments," with only occasional fragments moving at higher velocities.

The most extensive observations occurred on the second day over a three-hour period. Mission Commander Eugene Cernan reported difficulty sleeping and described observing "some sets of the streaks" and "peripheral horizon-type things" visible from his window. Most significantly, Cernan reported a very bright light that "flashed right between my eyes like a very bright headlight, like a train coming at you," which he characterized as "imposing" in intensity. Over the subsequent hours, Cernan observed several flashing, rotating phenomena that he assessed as corresponding to "something physical in the distance" rather than nearby particles or optical artifacts. He emphasized that "there is something out there" and requested that ground control attempt to locate the object using spacecraft gimbal angles and optical systems. The flashing object displayed a distinctive pattern with "two flashes" during each rotation, described as alternating between bright and dull flashes in "very rhythmic fashion." Cernan estimated the object's distance at approximately 10 to 12 Earth diameters away. Schmitt also observed similar phenomena during this period, though he attributed his sightings to the separated S-IVB rocket stage. Later, Cernan reported observing two additional distant flashing objects, which he assessed as possibly being Spacecraft/Lunar Module Adapter panels from the Saturn V rocket.

On the third day, during the final six-minute period highlighted in the transcription, Lunar Module Pilot Schmitt exclaimed that he had observed a flash on the lunar surface north of Grimaldi crater. He described it as a "bright little flash" and noted the position relative to the crater edge, reporting what appeared to be "a thin streak of light." Ground control requested that Schmitt mark the location on a map for documentation purposes.

Throughout all three observation periods, the astronauts attempted to identify the phenomena through reference to known spacecraft components and operational procedures. While some observations were tentatively attributed to separated rocket stages, debris, or equipment, the astronauts consistently reported phenomena that lay outside their initial expectations. The transcript reveals a systematic effort by both the crew and mission control to document and understand what the trained observers had witnessed, with particular attention paid to physical characteristics, duration, behavior patterns, and spatial relationships that the astronauts used to distinguish the phenomena from known spacecraft elements.