NASA-UAP-D6, Apollo 17 Technical Crew Debriefing, 1973

PDFTestimonyCONFIDENTIALNo redactions2/10— noise or low qualityPURSUE Release 1

Released: May 8, 2026

Official Description

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.”

UAP Insight Analysis— AI generated, not official

This is an excerpt (page 24-4) from the Apollo 17 Technical Crew Debriefing conducted on January 4, 1973, prepared by NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center Training Office. The debriefing captures astronaut accounts of visual phenomena observed during the mission, including light flashes experienced throughout the flight and observations during reentry and recovery operations. The document was originally classified CONFIDENTIAL and has since been declassified.

Key Findings

→Astronaut Harrison Schmitt reported experiencing light flashes 'just about continuously during the whole flight' when dark-adapted, a known phenomenon associated with cosmic ray interactions with the retina.
→Schmitt noted one flash he believed occurred on the lunar surface, distinguishing it from the routine in-flight flashes.
→During the ALFMED (Apollo Light Flash Moving Emulsion Detector) experiment when crew wore blindfolds, no visible flashes were reported, though Schmitt observed flashes resumed before sleep that same night.
→Astronaut Evans described a visual phenomenon during reentry — a fireball followed by a tunnel-like appearance with a bright spot at the center, consistent with normal reentry plasma effects.
→Commander Cernan noted no unusual sightings during landing or recovery beyond Evans humorously misidentifying the recovery aircraft carrier superstructure through foggy windows.

Extracted Entities

People

Harrison Schmitt (Lunar Module Pilot)Ron Evans (Command Module Pilot, CMP)Eugene Cernan (Commander)

Agencies & Organizations

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)Manned Spacecraft CenterCrew Training and Simulation Division, Training Office

Locations

Houston, TexasManned Spacecraft CenterLunar surface (referenced)

Aircraft & Objects

Fireball observed during reentryTunnel with bright spot (reentry plasma visual effect)

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AI analysis by claude-sonnet-4-6 · May 17, 2026