NASA APOLLO 17 — LUNAR PHOTOGRAPHIC ANOMALY ADDENDUM

About this document

NASA APOLLO 17 — LUNAR PHOTOGRAPHIC ANOMALY ADDENDUM is a declassified record from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, dated 1972-12-11, classification DECLASSIFIED. It is part of PURSUE Release 01 — the Pentagon's first public unsealing of UAP records under the Presidential Unsealing & Reporting System for UAP Encounters program, published on 2026-05-08 at war.gov/UFO/. UAP.WATCH has indexed the full text locally so the document can be read, searched, and cited without leaving the site.

Linked incidents

• Lunar Sky, north of Grimaldi crater — 11 DEC 1972 (PURSUE-003)

Document text

Tape 5/2
CC Yes, we copied your V I and your EMS numbers, and we've got a number for you. Maneuver start time will be at 03 plus 33 plus 27.
LMP: Okay, we got you. Maneuver at 03:33:27.
CC That's affirmative, Jack.
LMP: You guys didn't tell us we couldn't see anything going through the sunrise.
CC (Laughter) Roger.
00 03 25 01 CC 17, Houston. We're making plans here for a space-craft SEP time of 03 plus 43.
LMP 03 plus 43. Roger.
00 03 27 27 CC 17, Houston. We're copying cabin press of 5.9 this time.
CMP Roger. We - we just got it, Bob.
CC Okay.
CMP Thank you.
00 03 31 55 LMP Frame 65 for the LMPs mag November November.
00 03 34 10 LMP Okay. We - we are maneuvering, Houston.
CC Roger. We're watching it.
CMP: Now we've got a few very bright particles or fragments or something that go drifting by as we maneuver.
CC Roger. Understand.
LMP: There's a whole buncе of big ones on my window down there - just bright. It looks like the Fourth of July out of Ron's window.
CMP: Yes. Now you can see some of them in shape. They're very jagged, angular fragments that are tumbling.

Tape 5/3
CC Roger. They look like fluid of some sort?
CMP: Not to me. They look like pieces of something.
CC Roger.
CMP They're very bright.
CC Jack, we'd like OMNI Charlie.
CMP Bob, for the most part, these fragments are not - or are tumbling at a very slow rate. I tried a couple of pictures of them - different settings. You may get an idea of what, at least, the patterns look like.
CC Roger. I've got you. We're all ears on these fragments. Do you think you can figure out what they might be?
CMP: Well, you know I - I don't know. There are a number of possibilities. If you had some kind of a - I got the impression maybe they were curved a little bit, as if they might be - off the side of the S-IVB. And that's a wild guess -
CDR Okay. RCS LOGIC is ...
CMP -- ice chunks, possibly. Or maybe there's paint coming off of it.
00 03 37 34
CC Roger. I noticed on one trip up the elevator last weak near one of the flags. I thought it was on the S-II, but it might have been on the S-IVB. Looked like it was peeling. Maybe that's what you've got.
00 03 37 45
CC And the S-IVB maneuver is complete.
00 03 37 46
LMP ... in 1 minute.
CDR Okay. We'll set the old clock.
CMP: Okay. And the - with the maneuver complete, the fragment field is essentially static, except for very slight tumbling within the fragments.
Tape 5/4
00 03 38 01 CC
Roger. Cut in.
CMP: Every once in a while, a fragment of considerably higher velocity than the others goes across my window. But that's very rare.
CC Roger.
CMP: Hey, that's that field of view I saw out my window. Jack, do you see it now?
LMP Yes.
CMP: And, Bob. At least, there - there's no apparent relative motion between fragments.
CC Roger. Understand.
CMP I'll take two pictures about a minute apart if I can. And it'll be Frame 70.
CC Okay. Frame 70.
CDR: And, Bob. This is Geno. My impression is that they are - flat, flakelike particles. Some may be 6 inches across. And, although there's no relative motion between the two, most of them seem to be twinkling. And I think, for the most part, they're all moving away from us.
CC Roger, Gene. Thank you.
00 03 39 35 CMP
Okay. We've got 0180 and 0 on the old thumbwheels.
LMP Okay.
CC Roger, Ron.
00 03 39 53 CMP
Okay. TRANS CONTROL is ARMED.
LMP ... two ARMED.
00 03 39 57 CMP CONTROLLER number 2 is ARMED.
LMP ... SECS LOGIC ...

Tape 5/5
00 03 40 01 CMP
Okay. SECS LOGIC is CLOSED; SECS ARM are CLOSED;
LOGIC POWER is ON.
LMP Okay.
00 03 40 13 CC 17, Houston. You have a GO for T&D.
CDR Okay. A GO for T&D.
00 03 40 38 CMP
Okay. We'll ARM the PYROs. And we'll hit the GDC
ALIGN.
00 03 41 00 CMP And maneuver's complete. And 0180 and 0? On the
GDC? No. It's just ... It's kind of diddling.
00 03 41 19 CMP
Okay. DELTA-V in NORMAL.
00 03 41 42 CMP S-IVB, okay. Okay, switches are all set.
LMP Okay; 59:30.
00 03 41 55 CMP Okay. Let's start the DET.
00 03 41 59 CDR
Tickity-tick-tickity, Houston. We're running at 59:30.
CC Roger.
CMP Okay.
00 03 42 12 CMP
Okay. That's LAUNCH VEHICLE SEP, push button.
LMP Okay.
00 03 42 19 CMP MC in AUTO.
CMP Next?
00 03 42 29 CDR SEPARATION, Houston.
CMP: Okay, check the covers. Okay. And check the other ones off.
LMP They're all
CMP: Okay, I'm going to start the - My gosh, look at the junk! Okay; there's 15 seconds. Pitch her up. Okay, we'll PROCEED on the -
Tape 46/4
02 18 41 11 CDR
Okay. Is that it? Yes, I can get that, Gene.
CMP: Okay, you want to take a picture of it first?
Okay, POWER... Okay, stand by. 3, 2, 1 -
02 18 41 59 CMP MARK it. POWER switch OFF.
CDR Say, Bob or Stu.
CC Roger. Go ahead.
02 18 42 34 CDR
Okay, add - to ad to today. Not last night, but - I guess the first night I was in bed - I definitely saw some of these - because I had a hard time going to bed, to start with - I saw some of the same peripheral horizon-type things you said were not the type of data you were looking for; but I also saw a - some sets of the streaks. And probably the one most imposing thing I remember is - and the last one I remember before falling asleep - was the fact that there was a very bright spot that flashed right between my eyes like a very bright headlight - like a train coming at you, only with a flash. It's difficult probably to estimate the frequency of any of those because I was in a - sort of a sleep-hazy mode.
CC Roger.
CDR: But then, as today, I saw some that flashed and lit up the horizon and some that lit up peripherally; and I guess, as you say, that's a different kind of data, but I did see them there and they impressed me.
CC Okay. We got all that, Gene.
CDR Okay.
CMP: And it might be interesting to know I've never seen it before today.
CC: Hey, Gene, we appreciate all the data. We were just trying to make the data fit the curve; you know the old trick.

Tape 46/5
02 18 44 40 CDR
Okay, I just wanted you to - just told them like we saw them. That's all.
CC Roger.
CDR: I will say one thing, though; no question in my mind but that they're there. Last trip I took, I guess I just wasn't looking for them or paying any attention to them. Maybe they were there and I ignored them because of other things. But they're there.
LMP: Okay, all you flash bugs down there - or flash-bulbs I guess is the word - frame 50. I just took four pictures to show - two on the side and two on the bottom - to show the position of the ALF MED, and one of them of each set was focused on the ALF MED. The others were focused on the - the other set was focused on the struts.
CC Roger, Jack.
LMP: And when you don't have anything else to do, why don't you have somebody predict where the S-IVB is. I think I've got her spotted - behind us and above us with respect to the Earth and our travel from it.
CC FIDO just went out and shot himself, but we'll get working on it.
LMP: Oh, don't worry about it. Shoot. I thought you guys might have an idea off-the-cuff there.
CC
No, what's humorous on this, Jack, is they have really been working on that S-IVB impact point -, and they've really been - it's been a - a real difficult problem for them so far.
LMP I'll tell you, I bet you Ron could give a star sighting on it (laughter). I looked at it through the monocular and sure looks like the S-IVB.
CC Jack, we're not doubting you at all. We could probably start cranking it right now.
Tape 46/6
02 18 46 46 CC
Jack, are you sto - you all stowing the ALFMED
now or are you done?
CMP What's that, Bob?
CC Are you all done with the ALFRED now, Ron?
CMP: Yes, I've got to get it to - get the plate moved back down there yet.
CC Okay, Ron --
CMP ... get the blindfold off first so I can see what I'm doing.
CC Roger. I just want you to know. We've got a real long update coming up to you here on the LOI abort charts and that - and it's going to be, probably, a difficult readup. And you're the most familiar with the charts; you probably would want to take them. But whenever you want to take them, they are on - charts on page 3-81, 3-82, and then the cue card for LOI limits. Whenever you want to take them. It will be a lengthy one.
CMP: Stand by, Bob. Let us get squared away from the ALFMEID; then we can get going on that.
CC
No, I don't want to hurry you, Ron. I just want you to know what - when - just get yourself comfortable and be ready to take them whenever you want them. It's going to be a lengthy time, though.
02 18 47 51 CMP Okay.
CDR: Hey, Bob, I'm looking at what - what Jack was talking about; and it's definitely not a particle that's nearby because there is another one I can look at and get a three-dimensional comparison with. It is a - it is a bright object, and it's obviously rotating because it's flashing. It's way out in the distance, as I say, because there are particles that are close by and it's obviously not one of those. It's apparently rotating in a

Tape 46/7
very rhythmic fashion because the flashes come around almost - almost on time. And it's as we look back at the Earth, it's up at about 11:00 about - oh, maybe 10 or 12 Earth diameters. I don't know whether that does you any good, but there is something out there.
CC Roger. We don't doubt it, Gene. And we might work out a set of gimbal angles or something here; maybe we can get a look at it through the optics.
02 18 49 02 CDR
Okay. And I - I - I just want to emphasize that it's definitely not - not one of these particles that tends to look like a star out there. It's something physical in the distance. (Laughter) Oh, yes.
SC ... thing off.
02 18 50 13 CMP Yes, guess I am.
CC Okay, Gene. If you can call up a NOUN 20 so we know the spacecraft attitude, and if you can reference the object you're looking at out of your window, with - with respect to body axis and let us look at your - your - give us a mark, somehow, and give us your NOUN 20s, we can try and get a tie-in and start locating - locating this object down for you.
02 18 50 58 CDR
Okay, I'm looking it out - looking at it out the center window - the hatch window - and I'll give you a hack when it crosses the XX axis at the center window; and I guess it's up maybe 45 degrees.
CC Okay, give us a hack and we're copying your
NOUN 20s right now.
CDR: Okay, Jack says pitched up about 30 degrees but --
LMP No. 45, because
CDR: Yes, he agrees. It's 45 degrees pitched up, and I'll give you a hack when it crosses the XX axis.
CDR Okay -
Tape 46/8
02 18 51 32 CD
MARK it. It just crossed through the -
CC Mark. We got it.
CDR: -- let's call it the XZ plane of the spacecraft. One unique thing about it, Bob, is that it's got two flashes. As it comes around in - in rhythmic fashion, you get a very bright flash; and then you get a dull flash. And then it'll come around with a bright flash, and then a dull flash.
02 18 52 18 LMP
That's the side and - of the S-IVB - and then the engine bell, Gene.
LMP The commander doesn't think that I can see the engine bell on that thing.
CC Roger, Jack. Is that with the monocular you're looking at it?
CDR He couldn't see the engine bell if he had 10 monoc-
ulars.
CMP Okay. I've got the cable restowed now.
CC Say again, Ron.
02 18 53 10 CMP And, Gene, where's your blindfold?
02 18 55 24 LMP
Bob, couple of revolutions ago when I was looking at it, I had a much brighter view and I believe I was looking at it broadside. It looks to me like it may be flashing more or less end-on now. It's much, not - not as bright, although it's getting brighter. But it's not as bright now as it was awhile ago.
CC Roger, Jack.
LMP: ... we've been noticing that, I think, for about 24 hours or so. I just - hadn't put it together as maybe being the S-IVB. I thought it was just some other particle out there.
02 18 56 27 CC Roger, Jack.
CDR: Hey, Robert, what's the final Cowboy score?

Tape 46/9
CC
Okay; I was just going to update that. The Cowboys won it 34 to 24. And by winning it, they wrap up the wild-card slot in the NFC; and so both Washington and Dallas will be in the playoffs.
02 18 56 53 CDR Sounds good.
LMP
Bob, that line of clouds I called a fir-tree pattern that swings up towards Hawaii - Hawaii, if you will - has - also has a mushroom pattern on the top. It has the appearance as if two major air masses - one going from west to east and the other form east to west - have converged along that line, and the joint movement of air at the interface being south to north. And up in the area of Hawaii, I think, it tends to mushroom so that the pattern then goes back to flow from west to east on the east side and from east to west on the west side.
CC Roger.
02 18 58 27 LMP
In a little while, we'll probably get a pretty good look at a - what looks like a very concentrated intense storm that, I think, is just - east -
CMP: **** And then we'll put them. once we get updated a little bit. Yes, I'll get out of VOX in a minute.
LMP I was looking for the Flight Plan and stuff. And the little books.
LMP Say, Bob.
CC Go ahead.
LMP Houston, 17. How do you read?
CC Go ahead, Jack. Read you loud and clear.
CDR: Okay, Bob, you want to update the LOI card and Flight Plan 3-82 and 3-81; is that right?
CC That's affirmative.
CDR Which one do you want to start on?

Tape 47/14
And I'll just confirm that the - that disturbance over the So - Solomon Islands is an awfully tightly wound little storm system. And right now, I finally have see New Zealand for the first time in a couple of days, for sure. And the South Island's got some, probably high cirrus over it. North Island looks pretty clear. That's the end that I can get right now.
CC Roger. We saw you looking at Regulus there; we didn't realize you were looking at the Earth instead.
LMP: Ron's been looking for the booster. And he called me down and asked me to look at the Earth. He's been holding out on me.
CC Roger.
LMP Pass the torch of weather forecasting to Ron.
02 20 55 22 CC
Hey, Jack. I also have some words for you and Gene. Got some advice from the home front. The thing to do with Ron in the future is to hook up a Baby Ben and a metal dishpan. It works every time, if you want to wake him up.
CMP No. I think that's not a good way.
CC Ron, everybody's fine over at El Lago. They are doing great. Listening to every word.
CMP: Very good, Bob. Thank you very much.
CDR: Hey, Bob. We got two of those flashers out there. They could be SLA panels. I don't know. They're alike in intensity and pretty regular in the - in the intensity, bright and dim flashes they come out with, and they're widely separated. One is about the position we called at the first time; the other one is - oh, as I'm looking at the Earth, far to the left. Closer to the center window now.
02 20 56 52 CC Roger.
02 21 01 07 LMP Houston, 17.

Tape 47/15
CC Go ahead.
LMP: Yes, Bob, what is your - analysis chart, if you have it - surface terms analysis chart show for Hawaii today?
CC Stand by on that.
CC Jack, according to the --
LMP: The reason I ask is that for using your term - Go ahead.
CC No, go ahead on that, Jack.
LMP I was going to say, using your terminator time as a partial - mark for where Hawaii ought to be, Hawaii ought to be, it looks like that cyclonic circulation at the north end of the cloud bank I described, approaching that area, would be just about on the Hawa - Hawaiian Islands. I'm curious if they're getting some weather down there now.
CC Stand by right now; I've got my weatherman right beside me here.
LMP: Also, that major front we talked about last night as being east and south of Japan has progressed even farther and is, oh, maybe 20 degrees longitude - about 20 degrees longitude from the Hawaiian Islands. And I'm making some guesses on exactly where Hawaii is.
CC Roger, Jack. We've got nothing adverse in the Hawaiian area at all. Just a lot of winds, high winds and surface winds and surface roughness, but we don't have any bad cloud area in the Hawaiian area. I'll get the Hickam sequence report here shortly, Jack.
LMP: Okay, ... a little bit. The - our zero-phase point is now centered just a little south of the disturbance near the Solomon Islands. And I see no distinct change in the intensity of that zero-phase point over what I had talked about a couple hours ago.
Tape 47/16
02 21 04 23 CC
Roger, Jack. The Solomon Islands disturbance and everything is confirmed on this chart that I've got. It's very definitely confirmed in there.
LMP
Okay. Well, it's a lot more obvious today than
it was yesterday; but even then it was showing
pretty strong circulation. It is starting to
wrap up, look very much like Therese did yesterday.
CC Roger. I'm sure of that. The one right off of Vietnam is also pretty tight, isn't it still?
LMP Well, we can't see that one yet.
CC Okay.
LMP Australia in general is still very clear except in the northeastern portions where it looks like they have got scattered clouds; but it looks like a pretty night - over Australia.
CC Roger. Looks that way from the satellite photo from the last couple days. Looks pretty nice down there.
02 21 05 34 LMP Right.
02 21 07 05 CC
Jack, in looking at the sequence reports for
Hickam and Hilo and that area, it looks like they
just got their standard 3500 scattered, 4500 broken
clouds, maybe a rain shower or two. But just
their standard tropical fluffy clouds.
END OF TAPE

Tape 59/19
mare. Still looking at Oceanus Procellarum. And now, out window 3, up to the northwest, Grimaldi is starting to show up - a very obvious dark area within the highlands of that part of the Moon - and one of the darkest mare regions that we have seen on the - on the Moon. It's comparable, at least in the photographs, to that of Tsiolkovsky.
CC Roger.
03 15 33 25 IMP
Normally, of course, we think of the dark mare as being the younger basalt flows that - on the Moon, but in our case, of course, young means something on the order of 3 billion years or older.
END OF TAPE

Tape 60/1

APOLLO 17 AIR-TO-GROUND VOICE TRANSCRIPTION

03.15 33 44 CC Roger.
LMP For our interp - If we can extrapolate from the samples returned by other missions.
LMP: Amazing how far over - now the highlands to the west of Procellarum are - still are bright, and the contrast between fresh craters and the normal highland are very - are very obvious still in earthlight, particularly along the zero phase point with respect to the Earth. Rima Gamma now is - is coming a little bit closer to our oval track in the horseshoe in the - larger and more western end of it; the dark horseshoe is quite clear in this light. It's a west - or northwest-pointing horseshoe, as is the complete trend of that strange feature. I think Ron is going to have an excellent chance to study these light-colored swirls within the mare and other parts of the Moon. We had some good views of them and Mare Marginis and to the east of Crisium - Mare Crisium, and he should - if there is anything to be seen, he should be able to see it for - during the next few days.
CC Okeydoke.
03 15 35 50 CDR
Say, Gordo, something I just noticed here in working with the GDC what-have-you. I - looked at the Pc gage, and in the Pz - Pc position, there is a continuous bias on it now of about, oh, 7 percent, and if I switch to ALPHA, it goes to zero. We never saw that bias before this last burn.
CC Roger, Gene.
03 15 36 35 LMP
Hey, Gordy, I'm looking right up the western edge of the Procellarum mare where it contacts the - the - the high - western highlands of the Moon, and we're just about to fly a little bit south of Grimaldi. That edge is very irregular. There is no obvious indications that it - there are large basins that have been flooded by mare that have formed that edge, but, again, the topographic dis- tinction's possible in this lighter small. Now I'm starting to see that there are shadows in the craters.

Tape 60/2
CC Roger.
LMP: That's the small craters. There, in the Mare Proccllarum closest to Grimaldi, there are two arcuate rilles. Look like they are probably V-shaped in their cross section. I'm sure we've seen those on the photographs much better than I can see them here. Those - the rille patterns, though, do seem to project over into the highlands.
CC Okay.
LMP To the north of that - to the north of that bay of mare. Just interrupt.
03 15 38 09 LMP Hey, I just saw a flash on the lunar surface!
CC Oh, yes?
LMP: It was just out there north of Grimaldi. Just north of Grimaldi. You might see if you got anything on your seismometers, although a small impact probably would give a fair amount of visible light.
CC Okay. We'll check.
LMP: It was a bright little flash right out there near that crater. See the crater right at the edge of Grimaldi. Then there is another one north of it. Fairly sharp one north of it is where there was just a thin streak of light.
CC How about putting an X on the map where you saw it.
LMP: I keep looking occasionally for - yes, we will. I - I was planning on looking for those kind of things. Starting to see the edge of Orientale, Gordy. Way off to the west. Hey, just yell, Gene, anytime you -
03 15 39 46 LMP
Gordy, to the north of Grimaldi there is a large basin that is about the same size but only incompletely filled with mare in its northeastern quadrant. The rest of it looks like a fairly irregular and hummocky floor material of some kind.
CC Roger.