Apollo 11 unidentified bright object in lunar orbit
Document coverPage 1 of NASA-UAP-D4, Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing, 1969 · View original on war.gov
During Apollo 11's translunar flight, the crew observed a bright object through the spacecraft window that they initially could not identify, considering it might be the S-IVB stage until ground control reported the S-IVB was 6000 miles away.
“COLLINS: How'd we see this thing? Did we just look out the window and there it was? ALDRIN: Yes, and we weren't sure but what it might be the S-IVB. We called the ground and were told the S-IVB was 6000 miles away. We had a problem with the high gain about this time, didn't we?”
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
- en route to Moon, lunar orbit region
- Branch
- NASA
- Unit
- Apollo 11 Mission, MSC
- Sensors
- eyewitness
- Shape
- L-shaped or open suitcase-like; appeared as hollow cylinder when viewed through defocused sextant; described as open-book shape when focus was adjusted
- Size
- appeared to be of sizeable dimension within vicinity of spacecraft
Resolution
Crew concluded it was likely debris from the spacecraft, possibly Mylar material or part of high gain antenna that came loose during LM jettison or docking procedures.
Source document
Agency: NASA
File: NASA-UAP-D4, Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing, 1969
Case ID: UNDATED-NASA-271DF6
View original on war.gov →Extracted via LLM. Verbatim excerpt validated.