Apollo 12 Transcript, 1969
- Date
- Nov 1969
- Place
- Cislunar space / Lunar orbit
- Record
- Pentagon file
- Assessment
- Not assessed
- Evidence strength
What was reported
A short excerpt (4 pages) of the Apollo 12 air-to-ground transcript covering the Command Module/Lunar Module rendezvous and docking period. Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean reports particles and flashes of light streaming past the LM window, which he immediately attributes himself to water-boiler dump byproducts or debris escaping the Moon's vicinity, not an unknown craft. The crew also discusses debris ('bits and pieces') illuminated by their own tracking light and an EMI-related instrument flicker Houston attributes to known ground-test electromagnetic interference.
What officials concluded
Resolved
Bean self-identifies the lights as particles from the water boiler or debris escaping the Moon's vicinity, and separately, debris that had been catching the crew's own tracking light.
- Agency
- NASA
- Released in
- 123456
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- No: Radar
- No: Video
- No: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- No: Civilian
- No: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- Yes: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- Yes: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- No: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Why this rating The crew itself attributes both light phenomena to mundane, spacecraft-generated causes (water-boiler exhaust particles and debris lit by their own tracking light) in real time, with no unresolved characteristics or conventional-explanation mismatch.
As described in the file
- Witnesses
- Alan Bean (LMP), Richard Gordon (CMP), Pete Conrad (CDR) - all NASA astronauts
- Sensors
- Visual
- Lights and colour
- Particles/flashes of light
- Motion
- Particles 'sailing off in space,' seen to accelerate away
- Duration
- Brief, continuous during the observation window
- Altitude or range
- Immediately adjacent to spacecraft
Pentagon files
Apollo 12 Transcript, 1969
Open the original on war.gov
What the file claims
- Unverified
Bean described lights/particles of light streaming from behind him near the AOT (alignment optical telescope) dark quadrant, self-attributed to water boiler dump or lunar-vicinity debris.
- Unverified
Bean reported bits and pieces still floating along with the LM that had been illuminated by their own tracking light, and inferred the tracking light itself had burned out when the effect stopped.