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NASA-UAP-D1, Apollo 12 Transcript, 1969

UNCLASSIFIED // RECORD RELEASE 1 · 2026-05-08
PDF NASA INCIDENT 1969 · Moon

NASA-UAP-D1, Apollo 12 Transcript, 1969

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.

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nasa-uap-d1-apollo-12-transcript-1969
Release
release_1 (2026-05-08)
Agency
NASA
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pdf
Incident date
1969
Incident location
Moon
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application/pdf
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1006 KB
sha256
ab911622b7d4203d9d54914f03d1662cf561b7f943afe9d17f9617cfaea06585
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https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/release_1/nasa-uap-d1-apollo-12-transcript-1969.pdf

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                                                                        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-I.M   Go.

    05 19 16 37     CC        If you will give us PO0 and ACCEPI', we'll give
                              you a CSM state vector and RLS update.

    05 19 16 45     CDR-I.M   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 21.J 31   cc        Roger.   Go~ 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 IM 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 P00 and
                              ACCEPI', we have an uplink.

    05 19 21 20     CMP       All yours .

    05 19 23 14     CDR-I.M   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     C~        Affirmative.

    05 19 24 05     cc        Clipper, Houston.     Computer's yours.
)
                                                              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, be~~use
                       . I'm using the bus tics 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       Okey.

05 19 27 17   CDR-IM    Say, Houston, Intrepid.

05 19 27 20   cc        Intrepid, Houston.   Go.
05 19 27 25   IMP-LM    Roger. When you look out the AOT in the dark
                        quadrant? You can see these lights - particles
                        of light. flash~s 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;
                        T is 140:02:38; ~outh 05; latitude is
                         2
                        minus 3

05 19 29 10   CMP       Hoger.   T 112 -
                                                                         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-IM     Houston, Intrepid.

    05 20 09 30   cc         Intrepid, Houston.   GO.

    05 20 09 34   IMP-1..M   Got sort of an interesting thing going on AGS
                             right now. I didn't notice earlier, but it may
                             just be because the lights i:,.re brighter now.
                             I'm getting an all 8 1 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-IM     If I turn dmm 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 aw~.
)
    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 t estin :',
                             of most a.11 the spacecrafts up at Bethpage, and
                             it's probably an EMI.

    05 20 11 56   CDR-LM     That's what ve' ve been talking about, but we
                             thought we'd just tcucb in on it.

    05 20 11 59   IMP-IM     When you go to your roll rate, roll lef't, pitch
                             up - -
    05 20 12 01   cc         Roger. I think TRW's got a v0rkup on this
                             problem.

    05 20 12 08   CDR-IM     Okay?

    05 20 12 11   CDR-IM     Here yo~ go, Houston, with roll, pit ch, and
                             yav.

    05 20 12 14   cc         Roger, Pete.

)


                                                  -~---·- ··•···•- · -------- ----   ---.--·- -- --···----- -·- -··---·-
                                                                  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 co 21 51    CDR-IM    Hey, Houston. It looks like our tracking
                                 llght'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 vith us and we could tell that
                                 the tracking light va.; 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
                                  bas the television all set up. When we come
                                  around the hor~1, ·we' 11 come around with the
                                  television on in VOX.

        06 00 22 47    CC         Roger .

        .06 00 22 53   CDR-IM     Who knows, you may get to see the first
                                  wbiffer<l.ill.

        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-IM     Okay. Now ve just turned it off.     How 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 thr0ugh the
                                  air b~ckward3, 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.


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