Mysteries abound in spaceflight, and when I see an official technical document with an astronaut quoted as saying "I don't know what they were, but they were there." it piques the interest.
 |
| L-R: Mattingly, Young, Duke during water egress training. Source: NASA |
The following comments were taken directly from "Apollo 16 Technical Crew Debriefing."
YOUNG is John Young, Apollo 16 Commander.
MATTINGLY is Ken Mattingly, Command Module Pilot.
DUKE is Charlie Duke, Lunar Module Pilot.
SLAYTON is Deke Slayton, Chief of the Astronaut Office.
DUKE It's a good idea to brace yourself. And, I was surprised with the debris that I caught out of my left eye as it came by the hatch window from the staging.
YOUNG Hey, that's another thing that you remarked on.
MATTINGLY Yes. That amazing.
YOUNG The debris was going right along with us.
MATTINGLY It was passing us. I don't understand that.
DUKE I think that was from retrofire.
MATTINGLY No, sir. This was during the powered flight steady state. There were particles; I looked out John's window and particles were going past us in the same direction. I kept looking at that; there's no way. But, it did it. I don't remember it on the S-I; but, I remember it on the S-II and the S-IV.
SLAYTON This wasn't during the staging sequence?
MATTINGLY No, sir. This was steady state, powered flight well after staging; and, I don't know where they came from. I don't know what they were, but they were there.
YOUNG is John Young, Apollo 16 Commander.
MATTINGLY is Ken Mattingly, Command Module Pilot.
DUKE is Charlie Duke, Lunar Module Pilot.
SLAYTON is Deke Slayton, Chief of the Astronaut Office.
DUKE It's a good idea to brace yourself. And, I was surprised with the debris that I caught out of my left eye as it came by the hatch window from the staging.
YOUNG Hey, that's another thing that you remarked on.
MATTINGLY Yes. That amazing.
YOUNG The debris was going right along with us.
MATTINGLY It was passing us. I don't understand that.
DUKE I think that was from retrofire.
MATTINGLY No, sir. This was during the powered flight steady state. There were particles; I looked out John's window and particles were going past us in the same direction. I kept looking at that; there's no way. But, it did it. I don't remember it on the S-I; but, I remember it on the S-II and the S-IV.
SLAYTON This wasn't during the staging sequence?
MATTINGLY No, sir. This was steady state, powered flight well after staging; and, I don't know where they came from. I don't know what they were, but they were there.
Source: "Apollo 16 Technical Crew Debriefing", May 5, 1972, https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a16/a16-techdebrief.pdf
