Caption transcript
If you Very bright . Particles or
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Historical caseStructured for retrospective review and comparison against modern sightings.
NASA-UAP-D009, Apollo 17 Audio Excerpt, December 7, 1972
During the eleventh and final crewed mission in the Apollo program, Apollo 17 Commander Gene Cernan, Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, and Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans report seeing small lights outside the Apollo spacecraft during transit to the moon. The crew describe bright “particles” or “fragments” as being “jagged,” “angular,” and drifting near the Apollo spacecraft and the separated Saturn S-IVB stage. The Apollo 17 crew speculate that paint chips or ice chips are likely the source of these lights and note that they “twinkle” and move away from the Saturn S-IVB stage.
UnknownAudioDec 7, 1972
Witnesses
Unknown
Duration
Unknown
Source material
3
Timeline
3
Source provenance
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Live sighting record d80b11c7-0acf-45c8-9e70-49a35ec945f5.
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Correlations
Field Intelligence
Environmental context has not been resolved for this report yet.
Extracted details
Observed facts
Occurred
Dec 7, 1972
Timezone
GMT+00:00
Deep extraction
Source claims
Reported by source10Source inference1
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Source reportedAsserted
Apollo 17 Commander Gene Cernan, Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, and Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans report seeing small lights outside the Apollo spacecraft during transit to the moon.
Source reportedAsserted
The Apollo 17 crew describe bright 'particles' or 'fragments' as being 'jagged,' 'angular,' and drifting near the Apollo spacecraft and the separated Saturn S-IVB stage.
The crew describe bright 'particles' or 'fragments' as being 'jagged,' 'angular,' and drifting near the Apollo spacecraft and the separated Saturn S-IVB stage.
InferenceAsserted
The Apollo 17 crew speculate that paint chips or ice chips are likely the source of these lights.
Source reportedCaption transcript
NASA-UAP-D009, Apollo 17 Audio Excerpt, December 7, 1972 transcript includes a particle or fragment reference at 0:00.029.
[0:00.029] If you Very bright . Particles or [0:03.700] fragments or something that Drifting by
Source reportedCaption transcript
NASA-UAP-D009, Apollo 17 Audio Excerpt, December 7, 1972 transcript includes a particle or fragment reference at 0:03.700.
[0:00.029] If you Very bright . Particles or [0:03.700] fragments or something that Drifting by [0:06.969] as I do understand .
Source reportedCaption transcript
NASA-UAP-D009, Apollo 17 Audio Excerpt, December 7, 1972 transcript includes a particle or fragment reference at 0:29.426.
[0:27.370] shape . They're very , uh , jagged , [0:29.426] angular , uh , fragments , and they're [0:31.592] tumbling . Does it look like fluid of
Source reportedCaption transcript
NASA-UAP-D009, Apollo 17 Audio Excerpt, December 7, 1972 transcript includes a particle or fragment reference at 2:13.466.
[2:11.410] Bob , for the most part , uh , these [2:13.466] fragments are tumbling [2:16.429] are not - or are tumbling at a very slow rate . I've tried a couple of
Source reportedCaption transcript
NASA-UAP-D009, Apollo 17 Audio Excerpt, December 7, 1972 transcript includes a particle or fragment reference at 2:28.971.
[2:26.860] Roger , I got you . We're all ears on [2:28.971] these fragments if you think you can [2:31.027] figure out what they might be . You
Source reportedCaption transcript
NASA-UAP-D009, Apollo 17 Audio Excerpt, December 7, 1972 transcript includes an official-explanation reference at 2:48.720.
[2:44.779] S4B . I guess . RCS logic [2:48.720] is ice chunks possibly and maybe [2:51.179] there's paint coming off of it . Right ,
Source reportedCaption transcript
NASA-UAP-D009, Apollo 17 Audio Excerpt, December 7, 1972 transcript includes a particle or fragment reference at 3:12.059.
[3:09.729] At 2 o'clock , OK , and the with the [3:12.059] maneuver complete , the fragment field [3:14.226] is essentially static except for a very
Source reportedCaption transcript
NASA-UAP-D009, Apollo 17 Audio Excerpt, December 7, 1972 transcript includes a particle or fragment reference at 3:16.448.
[3:14.226] is essentially static except for a very [3:16.448] slight tumbling within the fragments . [3:19.610] Roger , copy that . Every once in a
Audio record
Transcript
63 timecoded segments
Caption transcript
Caption transcript
fragments or something that Drifting by
Caption transcript
as I do understand .
Caption transcript
Yeah , there's a whole bunch of big
Caption transcript
ones on my window that are just bright .
Caption transcript
Looks like the 4th of July out Ron's
Caption transcript
window . Yeah ,
Caption transcript
and now you can see some of them in
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shape . They're very , uh , jagged ,
Caption transcript
angular , uh , fragments , and they're
Caption transcript
tumbling . Does it look like fluid of
Caption transcript
some sort ? Not to me . They look like
Case progression
Timeline
Encounter windowDec 7, 1972
The encounter time was extracted from the report body.
PublishedMay 22, 2026, 12:00 AM
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Linked event
Grouped into the Apollo 17 incident dossier.
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