UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 01 · MAY 8, 2026
PENTAGON UFO FILE · DOCUMENT · NASA-UAP-D001Apollo 12 Transcript, 1969
This file reproduces a few pages of the official voice transcript from Apollo 12, Conrad and Bean’s lunar landing mission, at the point when the lunar module Intrepid was preparing to leave the Moon and rejoin Dick Gordon in the command module Yankee Clipper. Mixed in with routine traffic — state vectors, battery charging, lift-off times — are two short exchanges about lights and particles outside the spacecraft.
Bean’s flashes and the pulsing display
Looking through the alignment telescope into the dark part of the sky, Bean described particles and flashes of light coming from behind him and racing off toward the stars. Notably, he said his first thought was that they were coming off his own water boiler — part of the cooling system, which vents water — before adding that some seemed to be escaping the Moon.
A few pages on, Bean reported a different oddity: the digits on his abort guidance display faintly flashing all eights, pulsing once a second. Houston replied that engineers had seen the same thing in ground testing and that it was probably electromagnetic interference.
Conrad and the tracking light
Later, Conrad told Houston he thought Intrepid’s flashing tracking light had burned out: Gordon could not find the lunar module in his sextant, and bits of debris that had earlier glinted in the light no longer did. Ground controllers said the current readings showed the light was on, leaving the matter open. The transcript offers no further explanation of either episode. For the crew’s later account of light flashes, see the medical debriefing tape.
The official description
From war.gov/UFO, released May 8, 2026, quoted in full
Apollo 12 was the fourth crewed U.S. mission to the Moon and the second to land astronauts on the lunar surface. This document is an excerpt from the Apollo 12 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription, November 1969, highlighting two periods in which astronauts reported observing unidentified phenomenon: a one hour period on the fifth day, and a two minute period on the sixth day. These transcripts contain contemporaneous observations by the flight crew reacting to unidentified phenomenon. • Day 05, Hour 19, Minute 14, Second 58 through Day 05, Hour 20, Minute 12, Second 14: o At 05:19:27:25, the pilot of the Lunar Module (LMP-LM), Astronaut Alan L. Bean, described observing particles and flashes of light “sailing off in space” via the onboard Alignment Optical Telescope (AOT). He characterized these phenomenon as “escaping the Moon.” • Day 06, Hour 00, Minute 21, Second 42 through Day 06, Hour 00, Minute 23, Second 33: o Mission Commander, Charles “Pete” Conrad, described observing floating debris outside the lunar module, which had been illuminated by the module’s onboard tracking light. At 06:00:21:51, Conrad assessed that the tracking light had burnt out because he could no longer see the debris from the module.