Mercury Atlas 9 Audio Excerpt, May 15, 1963
- File
- NASA-UAP-D010
- Type
- Audio
- Agency
- NASA
- Date
- 5/15/63
- Place
- Low Earth Orbit
- Released
- Release 2, May 22, 2026
The government's description
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.