UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 02 · MAY 22, 2026

PENTAGON UFO FILE · AUDIO · NASA-UAP-D010

Mercury Atlas 9 Audio Excerpt, May 15, 1963

NASAIncident: May 15, 1963Low Earth OrbitLength 3:01
3:01 · plays from our Internet Archive copy · original on DVIDS

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.

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The description is the government’s own, from war.gov/UFO, released on May 22, 2026. The Pentagon calls these unresolved cases — publishing a file does not mean it shows anything anomalous.

Last updated October 13, 2026