Apollo 14 Debriefing (Continued), 1971
The second half of a 1971 Apollo 14 crew debriefing captures astronauts and NASA scientists working through one of the stranger sensory experiences of early spaceflight — flashes of light appearing with no obvious source. What they're puzzling over in real time is now understood as cosmic rays physically interacting with the retina, a phenomenon that had to be discovered the hard way, by humans leaving Earth's protective magnetic field for the first time. It's a vivid reminder that "unexplained" has a shelf life, and that the process of ruling things out is itself a scientific record worth keeping.
This file contains segment 2 of 2 of the Apollo 14 post-mission crew debriefing at the Manned Spacecraft Center (now Johnson Space Center), Houston, Texas. In this continued segment, crew members and debriefers further discuss the “light flash phenomena,” a then novel, now well-documented biological effect where high-energy cosmic rays pass through the eye and strike the retina, causing the perception of light streaks or flashes.