NASA-UAP-D010 / MERCURY ATLAS 9 AUDIO EXCERPT, MAY 15, 1963
Approximately one hour and 41 minutes into the final and longest flight of Project Mercury, Mercury-Atlas 9 mission (MA-9) Faith 7 Pilot L. Gordon Cooper Jr. notes that he sees “John’s fireflies,” referring to John Glenn
About this recording
NASA-UAP-D010 / MERCURY ATLAS 9 AUDIO EXCERPT, MAY 15, 1963 is a declassified NASA mission audio recording from Low Earth Orbit, dated 5/15/63. It is part of PURSUE Release 02 — the Department of War’s second tranche of UAP-related records, declassified on 2026-05-22 — and is hosted by the Department of Defense via the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS).
AARO assessment
Approximately one hour and 41 minutes into the final and longest flight of Project Mercury, Mercury-Atlas 9 mission (MA-9) Faith 7 Pilot L. Gordon Cooper Jr. notes that he sees “John’s fireflies,” referring to John Glenn’s term from the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission. NASA later determined that the “fireflies” are attributable to frozen condensation separating from the spacecraft body. The white, green-hued appearance of this phenomenon results from sunlight reflecting off frozen condensation.
How to listen
The audio can be played and downloaded directly from the official DVIDS asset page. UAP.WATCH does not host the audio file directly to preserve the government chain-of-custody. All 7 PURSUE Release 02 audio recordings are listed in the browse archive.
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- NASA-UAP-D009 / APOLLO 17 AUDIO EXCERPT, DECEMBER 7, 1972AUD-002 · Cislunar Space · 12/7/72
- NASA-UAP-D011 / MERCURY ATLAS 9 AUDIO EXCERPT, MAY 15, 1963AUD-004 · Low Earth Orbit · 5/15/63
- NASA-UAP-D012 / MERCURY ATLAS 8 AUDIO EXCERPT, OCTOBER 3, 1962AUD-005 · Low Earth Orbit · 10/3/62
- NASA-UAP-D013 / MERCURY ATLAS 7, MAY 24, 1962AUD-006 · Low Earth Orbit · 5/24/62
- NASA-UAP-D014 / MERCURY-REDSTONE 4, JULY 21, 1961AUD-007 · North Atlantic Ocean · 7/21/61