PURSUE archive · catalogue card
NASA-UAP-D012
Mercury Atlas 8 Audio Excerpt, October 3, 1962
This card reproduces what the official catalogue publishes. Our own analysis (cross-checked sources, timeline and hypotheses) will come when its turn arrives in the weekly review.
- Agency
- NASA
- Incident date
- Oct 3, 1962As the catalogue writes it: “10/3/62”
- Place
- Off the globe: Low Earth orbitAs the catalogue writes it: “Low Earth Orbit”
- Published in PURSUE
- May 22, 2026
- Records
- 1 record · Audio
01 Official description
During the Mercury Atlas 8 mission, Sigma 7 pilot Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Jr. describes observing “little white objects that tend to come from the capsule itself and drift off.” Schirra later also refers to those objects as “particles” and “lathe shavings.” Schirra also describes seeing a burst of light in the window, whose source he cannot identify. He speculates that his observation corresponds with the moment the sun passes below the horizon during sunset.
02 Catalogue records · 1
NASA-UAP-D012 · Audio · NASA · May 22, 2026
Mercury Atlas 8 Audio Excerpt, October 3, 1962
10/3/62 · Low Earth Orbit
DVIDS · broken link in the catalogue (checked Oct 5, 2026)
03 Related cases
Other catalogue cards from the same area or the same decade.
04 Sources
- [1]
Record · U.S. Department of War
Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE)
Card, descriptions and comments: PURSUE catalogue, U.S. Department of War. The files are not hosted here; they open on their official site.
Checked on Oct 4, 2026 · Open the original ↗
May contain errors by the AI and the editor · always check the official source.