Apollo 11 bright light source from Earth in lunar orbit
Document coverPage 1 of NASA-UAP-D4, Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing, 1969 · View original on war.gov
While in lunar orbit approaching lunar orbit insertion, Aldrin observed a bright light source appearing to come from Earth, initially suspected to be a laser, but later concluded to be sunlight reflecting off a body of water such as a lake.
“ALDRIN: In lunar orbit, following ascent, we did note and mention to the ground that approaching CDH when the Earth came up above the lunar horizon, I observed what appeared to be a fairly bright light source which we tentatively ascribed to a possible laser.”
Verbatim from NASA-UAP-D4, Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing, 1969 · View original on war.gov
Case details
- Date
- 1969-07-01
- Precision
- month
- Location
- lunar orbit
- Branch
- NASA
- Unit
- Apollo 11 Mission, MSC
- Sensors
- eyewitness
- Size
- fairly bright light source
Resolution
Identified as sunlight reflection off a body of water (lake) on Earth, though crew noted it was unusual to observe such a bright source at that distance.
Source document
Agency: NASA
File: NASA-UAP-D4, Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing, 1969
Case ID: UNDATED-NASA-0388A6
View original on war.gov →Extracted via LLM. Verbatim excerpt validated.