← Declassified UAP case filesNASA-UAP-D001DECLASSIFIED · R01

UFO Files: NASA Apollo 12 Air-to-Ground Transcript, 1969

Official file: NASA-UAP-D001, Apollo 12 Transcript, 1969

Published May 8, 2026 · Updated Jul 19, 2026

Incident date

1969

Incident location

Moon

Agency

NASA

Released in

R01 · 2026-05-08

File type

Document

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Key facts

Official file ID: NASA-UAP-D1 (cited as NASA-UAP-D001 in this file)
Document type: Document
Agency: NASA
Released in: R01 · 2026-05-08
Incident date: 1969
Incident location: Moon
Coordinates: 58.5959044, 23.2196461
Pages legible: 4/4
VIRIN: 260508-O-D0360-1059

Official description

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.

✦ AI summary

This is an excerpt from the NASA Apollo 12 air-to-ground transcript (tape pages 742, 743, 748 and 778), covering ground elapsed times from 5 days 19:14 to 6 days 00:23. It involves Mission Control (CC), the Command Module Pilot in Yankee Clipper (Dick), and the Lunar Module crew in Intrepid (CDR Pete and LMP Al). Most of it is routine: computer handovers, a CSM state vector and RLS update, the LM lift-off time of 142:03:47, battery charge termination at loss of signal, a P22 tracking PAD, an RCS hot fire, and a fore-and-aft sweepdown. In the first notable passage, the LMP says that looking out the AOT in the dark quadrant he sees particles or flashes of light coming from behind him and sailing off into space; he first thought they were dropping from his water boiler, but it looks like some of them are escaping the Moon, hauling out and pressing off at the stars. Houston replies only "Roger." In the second, he reports an "all 8's" flash on both the address and information registers of the AGS at about one-fifth normal brightness, pulsing every second and not noticeable if the illumination is turned down. Houston says a colleague and he have both seen the phenomenon on the DEDA while testing spacecraft at Bethpage and that it is probably EMI, and the CDR says that is what the crew had been discussing. Later the CDR says the tracking light seems burned out because the CMP cannot find the LM in the sextant and, unlike on the first nightside pass, nothing flashes on the floating bits and pieces; Houston says the current indicates the tracking light is on, and when the CDR says it has just been turned off and asks whether the current shows that, Houston answers "It sure does"; the CMP says he does not see it. The transcript does not identify the light particles.

Generated with AI from the official file — may contain errors.

▸Transcript(4 of 4 pages legible)

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[PAGE 1] Tape 90/3 Page 742 05 19 14 58 CC That's affirmative. We're ready for the E-MOD. 05 19 16 31 CC Intrepid, Houston. 05 19 16 35 CDR-LM Go. 05 19 16 37 CC If you will give us POO and ACCEPT, we'll give you a CSM state vector and RLS update. 05 19 16 45 CDR-LM You have POO and ACCEPT. 05 19 20 05 CMP Hello, Houston; Yankee Clipper. 05 19 20 09 CC Yankee Clipper, Houston. Loud and clear. 05 19 20 14 CMP Well, hello there, stranger. How are you? 05 19 20 22 CC Morning, Dick. We are fine. How are you? 05 19 20 27 CMP Well, pretty good. I hope you would like to have some company for a change. 05 19 20 31 CC Roger. Got the house clean? 05 19 20 36 CMP As a matter of fact, I just finished that. I sure do; got everything in order; ready to go towards the LM and bring back ... That's quite a chore; keeping this thing clean. 05 19 20 53 CC Roger. You got a couple of coal miners coming up to see you. 05 19 20 59 CMP That's okay. I'll be glad to see them. 05 19 21 10 CC Intrepid, Houston. The computer is yours. Break. Yankee Clipper, if you will go POO and ACCEPT, we have an uplink. 05 19 21 20 CMP All yours. 05 19 23 14 CDR-LM Houston, you got the lift-off time for me? 05 19 23 20 CC Stand by. 05 19 23 39 CC Intrepid, Houston. Your lift-off time is 142:03:47. 05 19 23 52 CDR-LM I copy 142:03:47.00. 05 19 23 57 CC Affirmative. 05 19 24 05 CC Clipper, Houston. Computer's yours. [PAGE 2] Tape 90/4 Page 743 05 19 24 11 CMP Okay. And Jerry, will you find out what they want to do about this battery charge, because I'm using the bus ties during the rendezvous? 05 19 24 23 CC Roger. 05 19 24 43 CC Yankee Clipper, Houston. Why don't you figure on terminating the battery charge at LOS? 05 19 24 52 CMP All right; I could let it go until I ... just before lift-off. That way it might take it all the way up. 05 19 25 33 CC Clipper, Houston. We prefer that you terminate at LOS on this pass. 05 19 25 40 CMP Roger. 05 19 25 41 CC Roger. That would be one less thing for us to keep track of prior to lift-off. 05 19 25 48 CMP Okay. 05 19 27 17 CDR-LM Say, Houston; Intrepid. 05 19 27 20 CC Intrepid, Houston. Go. 05 19 27 25 LMP-LM Roger. When you look out the AOT in the dark quadrant? You can see these lights - particles of light, flashes of light just seem to come from - in this case, I'm looking in quadrant 1 which is the left one. It's coming from behind me, the left, and they're just sailing off in space. I was thinking they're dropping from my water boiler, but it looks like some of those things are escaping the Moon. They really haul out of here and just press off at the stars. 05 19 27 56 CC Roger. 05 19 28 25 CC Yankee Clipper, Houston with a P22 tracking PAD. 05 19 28 42 CMP Go ahead. 05 19 28 44 CC Roger. Your target is LM; T1 is 139:57:39; T2 is 140:02:38; south 05; latitude is minus 3 - - 05 19 29 10 CMP Roger. T 112 - [PAGE 3] Tape 90/9 Page 748 05 20 08 23 CC Clipper, Houston. We'll give that data a good evaluation before we do anything with it. 05 20 09 25 LMP-LM Houston, Intrepid. 05 20 09 30 CC Intrepid, Houston. GO. 05 20 09 34 LMP-LM Got sort of an interesting thing going on AGS right now. I didn't notice earlier, but it may just be because the lights are brighter now. I'm getting an all 8's flash on both the address and the information registers at about one-fifth the brilliance of the normal numbers. And a - It's pulsing every second. 05 20 10 00 CC Roger, Al. 05 20 10 06 LMP-LM If I turn down the illumination level just a little bit, it's not noticeable. 05 20 10 52 LMP-LM Hello, Houston; Intrepid. You ready for my RCS hot fire? 05 20 10 59 CC Intrepid, Houston. Roger. Fire away. 05 20 11 03 CDR-LM Okay. 05 20 11 32 CC Intrepid, Houston. 05 20 11 37 LMP-LM Go. 05 20 11 39 CC Roger, Al. Fredo is here. He and I have both seen that phenomena on your DEDA during testing of most all the spacecrafts up at Bethpage, and it's probably an EMI. 05 20 11 56 CDR-LM That's what we've been talking about, but we thought we'd just touch in on it. 05 20 11 59 LMP-LM When you go to your roll rate, roll left, pitch up - - 05 20 12 01 CC Roger. I think TRW's got a workup on this problem. 05 20 12 08 CDR-LM Okay? 05 20 12 11 CDR-LM Here you go, Houston, with roll, pitch, and yaw. 05 20 12 14 CC Roger, Pete. [PAGE 4] Tape 93/8 Page 778 06 00 21 42 CMP But I don't have you in the sextant. That's okay. Your blinking light's just not blinking, that's all. 06 00 21 51 CDR-LM Hey, Houston. It looks like our tracking light's burned out. Dick hasn't been able to find us in this sextant. And on the first nightside pass we had little bits and pieces floating along with us and we could tell that the tracking light was flashing on them. And we still have, I've presumed to think, bits and pieces floating along and nothing's flashing on them, so I'm pretty sure it burned out. 06 00 22 11 CC Roger, Pete. 06 00 22 22 LMP-LM Yes, sir. Okay. 06 00 22 26 CC Hi, Intrepid. 06 00 22 27 LMP-LM Okay. 06 00 22 28 CC This is Houston. How'd your sweepdown fore and aft go? 06 00 22 33 CDR-LM It's getting much cleaner in here running this way; and, also, Yankee Clipper informs me he has the television all set up. When we come around the horizon, we'll come around with the television on in VOX. 06 00 22 47 CC Roger. 06 00 22 53 CDR-LM Who knows, you may get to see the first whifferdill. 06 00 22 59 CC Roger, Pete. Our electrical watchers say that the current indicates that your tracking light is on. 06 00 23 11 CDR-LM Okay. Now we just turned it off. Now does the current show that? 06 00 23 19 CC It - It sure does, Pete. 06 00 23 26 CMP You're - they're - You're flying through the air backwards, then, Pete, because I don't see it. 06 00 23 33 CDR-LM Well, my ball tells me I'm pointed at you, Dick, and so does my radar.

Generated with AI from the official file — may contain errors.

Source: U.S. Department of War / AARO — public domain · war.gov/ufo