UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 02 · MAY 22, 2026

PENTAGON UFO FILE · AUDIO · NASA-UAP-D011

Mercury Atlas 9 Audio Excerpt, May 15, 1963

NASAIncident: May 15, 1963Low Earth OrbitLength 8:14
8:14 · plays from our Internet Archive copy · original on DVIDS

During the final and longest flight of Project Mercury, Mercury-Atlas 9 mission (MA-9) Faith 7 Pilot L. Gordon Cooper Jr. describes the brilliant blue of sunrise beneath the haze layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. As he approaches sunrise, he describes small, luminous, brilliant white particles drifting away from the spacecraft. Cooper describes observing “fireflies” after deploying beacons, which are spherical mission-related equipment with xenon strobe lights.

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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