DISCLOSURE / FILE
Excerpt from the Apollo 17 Technical Crew Debriefing of January 4, 1973, in which Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt describes continuous light flashes seen during the mission when dark-adapted.
NASA-UAP-D6, Apollo 17 Technical Crew Debriefing, 1973
Excerpt from the Apollo 17 Technical Crew Debriefing of January 4, 1973, in which Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt describes continuous light flashes seen during the mission when dark-adapted.
This is MSC-07631, the NASA Apollo 17 Technical Crew Debriefing prepared by the Training Office, Crew Training and Simulation Division at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, dated January 4, 1973. On page 24-4, astronaut Harrison Schmitt reports that the crew had light flashes "just about continuously during the whole flight when we were dark adapted," including one Schmitt initially read as a flash on the lunar surface. Schmitt notes that during the ALFMED (Apollo Light Flash Moving Emulsion Detector) experiment, when the crew wore blindfolds, no flashes were visible, but the flashes resumed that evening before sleep. The document was originally marked CONFIDENTIAL and was declassified in May 2026 under E.O. 13526, Sec 3.3(a) per the NASA Declassification Guide.
This document will automatically become declassified 90 days from the published date.p.1
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264 m·
CONFIDENTIAL
MSC-07631
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
APOLLO 17
TECHNICAL
CREW DEBRIEFING
(U)
JANUARY 4, 1973
PREPARED BY
TRAINING OFFICE
CREW TRAINING AND SIMULATION DIVISION
This document will automatically become declassified
90 days from the published date.
NOTICE: This document may be exempt from
public disclosure under the Freedom of Infor-
mation Act (5 U.S.C. 552). Requests for its
release to persons outside the U.S. Govern-
ment should be handled under the provisions
of NASA Policy Directive 1382.2.
MANNED SPACECRAFT CENTER
HOUSTON, TEXAS
INDEXING DATA
DATE OPR # T PGM SUBJECT SIGNATOR LOC
01/ /3 N[ILLEGIBLE] [ILLEGIBLE]07631 R [ILLEGIBLE] [ILLEGIBLE]
DECLASSIFIED
E.O. 13526, Sec 3.3(a)
NASA Declassification Guide
Date of Guide (M) 05 (Y) 2026
Reviewer: [ILLEGIBLE]
Date 05/2026
CONFIDENTIALPage 2 · vision OCR
24-4 CONFIDENTIAL
EVANS after the brightness of the fireball decreased, I could look
(CONT'D)
back up through the rendezvous window and see what to me was
kind of like a tunnel with a bright spot in the middle of the
tunnel. Way down the tunnel, way back behind, I could see
the fireball.
CERNAN The only unusual sighting I can recall during landing or
recovery is when the CMP looked out the window and saw the
superstructure of an aircraft carrier and said, "Oh, we've
got a tin can with us."
EVANS Well, it was kind of foggy on the windows.
SCHMITT Transearth we had only a small crescent of an Earth and it was
not feasible to do any extensive weather observations. We
had light flashes just about continuously during the whole
flight when we were dark adapted. I had one which I thought
was a flash on the lunar surface. That one period of time
when we had the blindfolds on for the ALFMED experiment there
were just no visible flashes, although that evening, that
night, before I went to sleep I noticed that I was seeing the
light flashes again. So, it just seemed to be that one
interval either side of it where the light flash was not
visible to myself or to the other two crewmen.
CONFIDENTIALConcatenated 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.
264 m·
CONFIDENTIAL
MSC-07631
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
APOLLO 17
TECHNICAL
CREW DEBRIEFING
(U)
JANUARY 4, 1973
PREPARED BY
TRAINING OFFICE
CREW TRAINING AND SIMULATION DIVISION
This document will automatically become declassified
90 days from the published date.
NOTICE: This document may be exempt from
public disclosure under the Freedom of Infor-
mation Act (5 U.S.C. 552). Requests for its
release to persons outside the U.S. Govern-
ment should be handled under the provisions
of NASA Policy Directive 1382.2.
MANNED SPACECRAFT CENTER
HOUSTON, TEXAS
INDEXING DATA
DATE OPR # T PGM SUBJECT SIGNATOR LOC
01/ /3 N[ILLEGIBLE] [ILLEGIBLE]07631 R [ILLEGIBLE] [ILLEGIBLE]
DECLASSIFIED
E.O. 13526, Sec 3.3(a)
NASA Declassification Guide
Date of Guide (M) 05 (Y) 2026
Reviewer: [ILLEGIBLE]
Date 05/2026
CONFIDENTIAL24-4 CONFIDENTIAL
EVANS after the brightness of the fireball decreased, I could look
(CONT'D)
back up through the rendezvous window and see what to me was
kind of like a tunnel with a bright spot in the middle of the
tunnel. Way down the tunnel, way back behind, I could see
the fireball.
CERNAN The only unusual sighting I can recall during landing or
recovery is when the CMP looked out the window and saw the
superstructure of an aircraft carrier and said, "Oh, we've
got a tin can with us."
EVANS Well, it was kind of foggy on the windows.
SCHMITT Transearth we had only a small crescent of an Earth and it was
not feasible to do any extensive weather observations. We
had light flashes just about continuously during the whole
flight when we were dark adapted. I had one which I thought
was a flash on the lunar surface. That one period of time
when we had the blindfolds on for the ALFMED experiment there
were just no visible flashes, although that evening, that
night, before I went to sleep I noticed that I was seeing the
light flashes again. So, it just seemed to be that one
interval either side of it where the light flash was not
visible to myself or to the other two crewmen.
CONFIDENTIAL