DISCLOSURE / FILE
Excerpt of the Apollo 12 air-to-ground voice transcript in which Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean and Commander Pete Conrad describe unidentified particles and lights observed near the spacecraft on November 1969 mission days 5 and 6.
NASA-UAP-D1, Apollo 12 Transcript, 1969
Excerpt of the Apollo 12 air-to-ground voice transcript in which Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean and Commander Pete Conrad describe unidentified particles and lights observed near the spacecraft on November 1969 mission days 5 and 6.
The transcript is from NASA's Apollo 12 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription, November 1969, and captures two crew observations of unidentified phenomena. At Ground Elapsed Time 05:19:27:25, LMP Alan Bean reported through the Alignment Optical Telescope that flashes and particles of light were 'sailing off in space' and appeared to be 'escaping the Moon.' On the next mission day at 06:00:21:42, Commander Pete Conrad reported 'little bits and pieces floating along' beside the Lunar Module that had been illuminated by the onboard tracking light, and assessed the light had burned out when the debris stopped flashing. Houston subsequently told Conrad that electrical telemetry showed the tracking light current was still on, leaving the cause of the lost illumination unresolved on the loop.
When you look out the AOT in the dark quadrant? You can see these lights - particles of light. flash~s of light just seem to come from - in this case, I'm looking in quadrant 1 which is the left one.p.2
It's coming :from behind me, the left, and they're just sailing off in space.p.2
I was thinking they're dropping from my water boiler. but it looks like some of those things are escaping the Moon.p.2
They really haul out of here and just press off at the stars.p.2
Hey, Houston. It looks like our tracking llght's burned out.p.4
And on the first nightside pass we had little bits and pieces floating along vith us and we could tell that the tracking light va; flashing on them.p.4
Our electrical watchers say that the current indicates that your tracking light is on.p.4
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05 19 14 58 05 19 16 31 05 19 16 35 05 19 16 37 05 19 16 45 05 19 20 05 05 19 20 09 05 19 20 14 05 19 20 22 05 19 20 27 05 19 21.J 31 05 19 20 36 05 19 20 53 05 19 20 59 05 19 21 10 05 19 21 20 05 19 23 14 05 19 23 20 05 19 23 39 05 19 23 52 05 19 23 57 05 19 24 05 ) cc CC CDR-I.M CC CDR-I.M CMP cc CMP cc CMP cc CMP cc CMP CC CMP CDR-I.M CC cc CDR-LM C~ cc Tape 90/3 Page 742 That's affirmative. We're ready for the E-MOD. Intrepid, Houston. Go. If you will give us PO0 and ACCEPI', we'll give you a CSM state vector and RLS update. You have POO and ACCEPT. Hello, Houston; Yankee Clipper. Yankee Clipper, Houston. Loud and clear. Well, hello there, stranger. How are you? Morning, Dick. We are fine. How are you? Well, pretty good. I hope you would like to have some company for a change. Roger. Go~ the house clean? As a matter of fact, I Just finished that. I sure do; got everything in order; ready to go towards the IM and bring back . . . That's quite a chore; keeping this thing clean. Roger. You got a couple of coal miners coming up to see you. That's okay. I'll be glad to see them. Intrepid, Houston. The computer is yours. Break. Yankee Clipper, if you will go P00 and ACCEPI', we have an uplink. All yours . Houston, you got the lift-off time for me? Stand by. Intrepid, Houston. Your lift-off time is 142:03:47, I copy 142:03:47.00 . Affirmative. Clipper, Houston. Computer's yours.
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05 19 24 11 05 19 24 23 05 19 24 43 05 19 24 52 05 19 25 33 05 19 25 40 05 19 25 41 05 19 25 48 05 19 27 17 05 19 27 20 05 19 27 25 05 19 27 56 05 19 28 25 05 19 28 42 05 19 28 44 05 19 29 10 CMP cc cc CMP cc CMP cc CMP CDR-IM cc IMP-LM cc cc CMP cc CMP Tape 90/4 Page 743 Okay. And Jerry, will you find out what they want to do about this battery charge, be~~use . I'm using the bus tics during the rendezvous? Roger. Yankee Clipper, Houston. Why don't you figure on terminating the battery charge at LOS? All right; I could let it go until I just before lift-off. That way it might take it all the way up. Clipper, Houston. We prefer that you terminate at LOS on this pass. Roger. Roger. That would be one less thing for us to keep track of prior to lift-off. Okey. Say, Houston, Intrepid. Intrepid, Houston. Go. Roger. When you look out the AOT in the dark quadrant? You can see these lights - particles of light. flash~s of light just seem to come from - in this case, I'm looking in quadrant 1 which is the left one. It's coming :from behind me, the left, and they're just sailing off in space. I was thinking they're dropping from my water boiler. but it looks like some of those things are escaping the Moon. They really haul out of here and just press off at the stars. Roger. Yankee Clipper~ Houston with a P22 tracking PAD. Go ahead. Roger. Your target is LM; T 1 is 139: 57:39; T 2 is 140:02:38; ~outh 05; latitude is minus 3 Hoger. T 112 -
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.. 06 00 21 42 06 co 21 51 06 00 22 11 06 00 22 22 06 00 22 26 06 00 22 27 06 00 22 28 ( 06 00 22 33 06 00 22 47 .06 00 22 53 06 00 22 59 06 00 23 11 06 00 23 19 06 00 23 26 06 00 23 33 ) CMP CDR-IM CC LMP-LM CC LMP-LM cc CDR-LM CC CDR-IM CC CDR-IM cc CMP CDR-LM • Tape 93/8 Page 778 But I don't have you in the sextant, That's okay. Your blinking light's Just not blinking, that's all. Hey, Houston. It looks like our tracking llght's burned out. Dick hasn't been able to find us in this sextant. And on the first nightside pass we had little bits and pieces floating along vith us and we could tell that the tracking light va.; flashing on them. And we still have, I've presumed to think, bits and pieces floating along and nothing' s flashing on them, so I'm pretty sure it burned out. Roger, Pete. Yes, sir. Okay. Hi, Intrepid. Okay. This is Houston. How'd your sweepdown fore and aft go? It's getting much cleaner in here running this way; and, also, Yankee Clipper informs me he bas the television all set up. When we come around the hor~1, ·we' 11 come around with the television on in VOX. Roger . Who knows, you may get to see the first wbiffer<l.ill. Roger, Pete. Our electrical watchers say that the current indicates that your tracking light is on. Okay. Now ve just turned it off. How does the current show that? It - It sure does, Pete. You're - they're - You're flying thr0ugh the air b~ckward3, then, Pete, because I don't see it. Well, my ball tells me I'm pointed at you, Dick, and so does my radar.
Concatenated page-by-page transcript. Born-digital pages came through pdf.js; scanned pages were transcribed by Claude vision OCR. Pages marked unreadable failed multiple OCR retries (heavy redaction, microfilm artifacts, or blank separators) and are kept in place for audit.
05 19 14 58 05 19 16 31 05 19 16 35 05 19 16 37 05 19 16 45 05 19 20 05 05 19 20 09 05 19 20 14 05 19 20 22 05 19 20 27 05 19 21.J 31 05 19 20 36 05 19 20 53 05 19 20 59 05 19 21 10 05 19 21 20 05 19 23 14 05 19 23 20 05 19 23 39 05 19 23 52 05 19 23 57 05 19 24 05 ) cc CC CDR-I.M CC CDR-I.M CMP cc CMP cc CMP cc CMP cc CMP CC CMP CDR-I.M CC cc CDR-LM C~ cc Tape 90/3 Page 742 That's affirmative. We're ready for the E-MOD. Intrepid, Houston. Go. If you will give us PO0 and ACCEPI', we'll give you a CSM state vector and RLS update. You have POO and ACCEPT. Hello, Houston; Yankee Clipper. Yankee Clipper, Houston. Loud and clear. Well, hello there, stranger. How are you? Morning, Dick. We are fine. How are you? Well, pretty good. I hope you would like to have some company for a change. Roger. Go~ the house clean? As a matter of fact, I Just finished that. I sure do; got everything in order; ready to go towards the IM and bring back . . . That's quite a chore; keeping this thing clean. Roger. You got a couple of coal miners coming up to see you. That's okay. I'll be glad to see them. Intrepid, Houston. The computer is yours. Break. Yankee Clipper, if you will go P00 and ACCEPI', we have an uplink. All yours . Houston, you got the lift-off time for me? Stand by. Intrepid, Houston. Your lift-off time is 142:03:47, I copy 142:03:47.00 . Affirmative. Clipper, Houston. Computer's yours.
05 19 24 11 05 19 24 23 05 19 24 43 05 19 24 52 05 19 25 33 05 19 25 40 05 19 25 41 05 19 25 48 05 19 27 17 05 19 27 20 05 19 27 25 05 19 27 56 05 19 28 25 05 19 28 42 05 19 28 44 05 19 29 10 CMP cc cc CMP cc CMP cc CMP CDR-IM cc IMP-LM cc cc CMP cc CMP Tape 90/4 Page 743 Okay. And Jerry, will you find out what they want to do about this battery charge, be~~use . I'm using the bus tics during the rendezvous? Roger. Yankee Clipper, Houston. Why don't you figure on terminating the battery charge at LOS? All right; I could let it go until I just before lift-off. That way it might take it all the way up. Clipper, Houston. We prefer that you terminate at LOS on this pass. Roger. Roger. That would be one less thing for us to keep track of prior to lift-off. Okey. Say, Houston, Intrepid. Intrepid, Houston. Go. Roger. When you look out the AOT in the dark quadrant? You can see these lights - particles of light. flash~s of light just seem to come from - in this case, I'm looking in quadrant 1 which is the left one. It's coming :from behind me, the left, and they're just sailing off in space. I was thinking they're dropping from my water boiler. but it looks like some of those things are escaping the Moon. They really haul out of here and just press off at the stars. Roger. Yankee Clipper~ Houston with a P22 tracking PAD. Go ahead. Roger. Your target is LM; T 1 is 139: 57:39; T 2 is 140:02:38; ~outh 05; latitude is minus 3 Hoger. T 112 -
- 05 20 08 23 05 20 09 25 05 20 09 30 05 20 09 34 05 20 10 00 05 20 10 06 05 20 10 52 05 20 10 59 ) 05 20 11 03 05 20 11 32 05 20 11 37 05 20 11 39 05 20 11 56 05 20 11 59 05 20 12 01 05 20 12 08 05 20 12 11 05 20 12 14 ) cc LMP-IM cc IMP-1..M CC LMP-IM LMP-LM CC CDR-LM CC LMP-LM cc CDR-LM IMP-IM cc CDR-IM CDR-IM cc Tape 90/9 Page 748 _) Clipper, Houston. We'll give that data a good evaluation before we do anything with it. Houston, Intrepid. Intrepid, Houston. GO. Got sort of an interesting thing going on AGS right now. I didn't notice earlier, but it may just be because the lights i:,.re brighter now. I'm getting an all 8 1 s flash on both the address and the information registers at about one- fifth the brilliance of the normal numbers. And a - It's pulsing every second. Roger, Al. If I turn dmm the illumination level just a little bit, it's not noticeable. Hello, Houston ; Intrepid. You ready for my RCS hot fire? Intrepid, Houston. Roger. Fire aw~. Okay. Intrepid, Houston. Go. Roger, Al. Fredo is here. He and I have both seen that phenomena on your DEDA during t estin :', of most a.11 the spacecrafts up at Bethpage, and it's probably an EMI. That's what ve' ve been talking about, but we thought we'd just tcucb in on it. When you go to your roll rate, roll lef't, pitch up - - Roger. I think TRW's got a v0rkup on this problem. Okay? Here yo~ go, Houston, with roll, pit ch, and yav. Roger, Pete. -~---·- ··•···•-· -------- ---- ---.--·- -- -···----- -·- -··---· -
.. 06 00 21 42 06 co 21 51 06 00 22 11 06 00 22 22 06 00 22 26 06 00 22 27 06 00 22 28 ( 06 00 22 33 06 00 22 47 .06 00 22 53 06 00 22 59 06 00 23 11 06 00 23 19 06 00 23 26 06 00 23 33 ) CMP CDR-IM CC LMP-LM CC LMP-LM cc CDR-LM CC CDR-IM CC CDR-IM cc CMP CDR-LM • Tape 93/8 Page 778 But I don't have you in the sextant, That's okay. Your blinking light's Just not blinking, that's all. Hey, Houston. It looks like our tracking llght's burned out. Dick hasn't been able to find us in this sextant. And on the first nightside pass we had little bits and pieces floating along vith us and we could tell that the tracking light va.; flashing on them. And we still have, I've presumed to think, bits and pieces floating along and nothing' s flashing on them, so I'm pretty sure it burned out. Roger, Pete. Yes, sir. Okay. Hi, Intrepid. Okay. This is Houston. How'd your sweepdown fore and aft go? It's getting much cleaner in here running this way; and, also, Yankee Clipper informs me he bas the television all set up. When we come around the hor~1, ·we' 11 come around with the television on in VOX. Roger . Who knows, you may get to see the first wbiffer<l.ill. Roger, Pete. Our electrical watchers say that the current indicates that your tracking light is on. Okay. Now ve just turned it off. How does the current show that? It - It sure does, Pete. You're - they're - You're flying thr0ugh the air b~ckward3, then, Pete, because I don't see it. Well, my ball tells me I'm pointed at you, Dick, and so does my radar.