NASA-UAP-D006, Apollo 17 Technical Crew Debriefing, 1973
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This document is an excerpt from the Apollo 17 Technical Crew Debriefing, dated January 4, 1973, prepared by NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. The debriefing involves the Apollo 17 crew, including Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Commander Eugene Cernan. Schmitt reported experiencing near-continuous light flashes throughout the mission when dark-adapted, including one flash he believed originated on the lunar surface. The document was originally marked Confidential and has been declassified under Executive Order 13526.
The light flashes Schmitt describes are consistent with a well-documented phenomenon in spaceflight: cosmic ray interactions with the retina or visual cortex, studied during Apollo through the ALFMED experiment. Schmitt's observation that flashes ceased while wearing ALFMED blindfolds — then resumed afterward — is a data point relevant to that experiment's findings. No information appears redacted in this excerpt. The document is notable in a UAP release context primarily because light flashes observed in space have occasionally been mischaracterized; the debriefing provides the crew's own matter-of-fact technical accounting.
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Apollo 17 was the ninth crewed U.S. mission to the Moon, and the sixth to land Astronauts on the lunar surface. This document is an excerpt from the Apollo 17 Technical Crew Debriefing on January 4, 1973, in which astronaut Harrison Schmitt reported seeing light flashes.
• Page 24-4. [Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt]: “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 [Apollo Light Flash Moving Emulsion Detector] 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.”
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264 p
CUNPIDERITAL
MSC-07631
NASA
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
APOLLO 17
TECHNICAL
CREW DEBRIEFING
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
PGM
SUBJECT
INDEXING BATA
DATE
14 73
M.
• 07621
SIGNATOR
LOC
DECLASSIFIED
B.O. 13526, Sec 3.3(a)
NASA Declassification Guide
Date of Guide: (M) 05 (Y) 2026
Reviewer: r3
Date 56/2026
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24-4
EVANS
( CONT ' D)
CERNAN
EVANS
SCHMITT
•CONADENT
after the brightness of the fireball decreased, I could look
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.
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."
Well, it was kind of foggy on the windows.
Transearth we had only a small crescent of an Earth and it was
not feasible to do any extensive weather observations.
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.