[chris]

This recording is Tape 12 from a 1969 medical debriefing of the Apollo 12 crew. Commander Charles "Pete" Conrad, Command Module Pilot Richard "Dick" F. Gordon, and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean describe seeing light flashes or "streaks of lights" in the dark while trying to sleep.

The NASA medical team considered whether similar reports by Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin had come from cosmic rays affecting the retina. NASA later determined that the Apollo 12 crew's reports were internal to the astronauts' vision, not external light sources.

From the recording, at 2:55:

What Pete described is the exact phenomenon that all three of us saw. You'd see a light, you know, just a flash out there or sometimes it'd be a a streak. And I saw them in both eyes, either eye, and, uh, I can't remember if there was one that was more predominant than the other, but I agree with Pete. It's a phenomenon that you're not seeing with both eyes. It's not something external to you. It's something that's inside or coming across you.

Declassified by the Department of War under the PURSUE UAP records release (tranche of 5/22/26).
Agency: NASA
Incident: 1969, Texas
Document ID: NASA-UAP-D008
Recording length: 7 minutes 50 seconds.
Photograph: NASA, Portraits - Apollo 12 - MSC, 1969-09-01 (NASA ID S69-38992).