Declassified UAP

NASA-UAP-D011

Mercury Atlas 9 Audio Excerpt, May 15, 1963

Agency
NASA
Format
Audio
Incident date
5/15/63
Released
Release 02, May 22, 2026
Source
DVIDS
Topics
Orbs & spheres, Spaceflight, Military aircrew, Debriefings & transcripts

Description from war.gov

During the final and longest flight of Project Mercury, Mercury-Atlas 9 mission (MA-9) Faith 7 Pilot L. Gordon Cooper Jr. describes the brilliant blue of sunrise beneath the haze layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. As he approaches sunrise, he describes small, luminous, brilliant white particles drifting away from the spacecraft. Cooper describes observing “fireflies” after deploying beacons, which are spherical mission-related equipment with xenon strobe lights.

Transcript

And I'm going to get the brilliant blue of sun rising in the east. Right blue band underneath all this haze layer. I can see the haze layer. And the right band of light beam arcation coming underneath it. Quite distinctive. There's a faint, good, is where there are clouds apparently. Roger Hawaii, phase 7, radio loud and clear. Roger Hawaii, phase 7, radio loud and clear. Roger, understand. Roger, I'm just small and forward, 180-degree approaching sun rise over. Roger. East small luminous particles drift away from you. Small and forward. In flight they appear brilliant white. They appear to move on out. They're around back to the flight path. Come in here, I don't think. Roger, you haven't seen the bacon at this time. Negative, I still haven't seen the bacon. Sure. There was considerable noise though as if something were departing. Again, sir. There was considerable noise of the little doors, like those doors blowing open. So I assume the bacon has departed. Roger, understand. Hey, I'm looks real good on the ground. All right, Roger. Okay, you can find my TV control switch to off. Roger, TV control is off. Okay. All right, we have a swipe, but decrease in the pool links on the DC current ball with you. So we got it. All right, you're DC current. Roger, main bus is 24. I slayed at 28.5. Roger. Hey, good. I got it. I got it. Was wired. Did you have anything to eat? No, I didn't. Not yet. I'm planning to do shortly here though. All right, your information systems-wise computation run 0 at a Y, give you 8-8 auto, 9-8 manual, which is somewhat better than you're indicating on board. All right, you're on board. I'm indicating 9-6 and 1-0-2. Oh, boy, what a beautiful shot of Florida. Roger, let's get them here once more, too. Roger, the whole state is clear. I can see just about off. There's been a beautiful view coming over Florida. All right, we're on board. I'm at the last daylight going in the dark, and I've been looking for the flashing beacon. 50518, now. 28, I'm sorry, not 180. It's light inside, it is below me. There's quite a brownish, reddish-brown, and a set of latitude above the ground. It's got my fiery, uh, pitch-down thruster. I get a shower of these little fireflies. It is flashing now, it is a light. It's quite bright, quite discernible. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, right. Here's to be about ten to twelve miles away. I'm keeping a drag land in one of those. At the order of a second magnitude star now.
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Machine summary

Written by Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Anthropic) on May 22, 2026, from the record's text and war.gov's description. It is not part of the record and can contain errors; check it against the document.

NASA-UAP-D011 is an audio transcript excerpt from the Mercury-Atlas 9 (Faith 7) mission, dated May 15, 1963, involving astronaut L. Gordon Cooper Jr. in low Earth orbit. The document captures ground-to-air communications during Cooper's observations of small, luminous white particles drifting away from the spacecraft near sunrise. Cooper also describes locating the mission's flashing xenon strobe beacon after hearing sounds consistent with the beacon doors opening. The transcript includes routine systems checks, orbital observations, and Cooper's descriptions of the atmospheric haze layer and surface views.

The record is relevant because Cooper's "firefly" observations during Mercury missions were previously discussed in post-flight debriefs and have appeared in UAP literature over the decades. This transcript contextualizes those observations: the particles appear linked to spacecraft hardware activity, specifically beacon deployment, rather than external phenomena. No significant redactions are apparent in the excerpt. The document's inclusion in the PURSUE release suggests it was evaluated as potentially relevant to UAP reporting history, though the content itself points toward a mundane spacecraft-related explanation.

Most frequent words

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roger right brilliant small quite flight describes blue haze layer away light good clear bacon board mercury mission cooper sunrise luminous white particles fireflies going east band underneath coming hawaii

Low Earth Orbit, 5/15/63

  1. NASA-UAP-D010 Mercury Atlas 9 Audio Excerpt, May 15, 1963 NASA Audio 5/15/63

Closest matches by the text of the documents.

  1. NASA-UAP-D013 Mercury Atlas 7, May 24, 1962 NASA Audio 5/24/62
  2. NASA-UAP-D012 Mercury Atlas 8 Audio Excerpt, October 3, 1962 NASA Audio 10/3/62
  3. NASA-UAP-D023 Interview Excerpt with Astronaut Gordon Cooper, 1962  NASA Audio November, 1962
  4. NASA-UAP-D015 Astronaut Scientific Debriefings, 1962-1963  NASA Document 1962-1963
  5. NASA-UAP-D009 Apollo 17 Audio Excerpt, December 7, 1972 NASA Audio 12/7/72
  6. NASA-UAP-D001 Apollo 12 Transcript, 1969 NASA Document 1969
  7. NASA-UAP-D003 Gemini 7 Transcript, 1965 NASA Document 12/5/65