Wally Schirra Sigma 7 orbital observations

Wally Schirra flew the Mercury Atlas 8 mission, Sigma 7, on 3 October 1962. An audio excerpt from the flight, catalogued as NASA-UAP-D012, records him describing small white objects drifting from the capsule and a brief burst of light seen through the window. The excerpt's analysis says Schirra attributed the white objects to capsule-derived particles, which he called "lathe shavings", and the light burst to a solar sunset event. The analysis notes that no sensor corroboration is referenced.

A second file, NASA-UAP-D015, collects NASA debriefing material from 1962-1963 on luminous phenomena reported by astronauts John Glenn and Schirra. Its catalogue description was the basis of the earlier analysis, which was metadata-only. The pages given here come from a debriefing chaired by Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, with Schirra and NASA and Goddard staff present, listed on page 116.

On the planet Mercury, Schirra said it looked white like any other star and was identified on his star chart. He said he saw it longer than expected. Dr. John O'Keefe said this was explained by atmospheric refraction, a theory credited to Mrs. Cameron. Larry Dunkelman said the blue bands related to ozone absorbing orange, yellow and green light, and that Schirra may have been looking edge-on at the ozone layer.

Schirra also said that clouding of the window from the escape rocket reduced the stars he could see by about one magnitude. Later pages record a brownish smog layer he saw on the return pass and a lightning flare reported to the Indian Ocean ship, whose crew saw clear sky. Schirra said he could not see the station because clouds covered the flare along a long slant line.