Chronicle year
1972
1972-12-01 / Moon
During the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans reported "very bright particles or fragments or something" drifting past the spacecraft during a maneuver at Day 00, 03:34:10. Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt described the view as looking "like the Fourth of July," while Mission Commander Eugene Cernan estimated the fragments as "flat, flakelike particles," some possibly 6 inches across and twinkling. Evans speculated the fragments might be ice chunks or paint from the S-IVB stage but called that "a wild guess."
1972-12-01 / Lunar surface
At the Apollo 17 Technical Crew Debriefing on January 4, 1973, Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt told NASA debriefers that the crew had light flashes "just about continuously during the whole flight" when dark adapted, and that he believed one was a flash on the lunar surface. Schmitt noted no flashes were visible to himself or the other two crewmen during the ALFMED blindfold experiment interval, though the flashes resumed for him before sleep that same night. Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans separately described seeing a fireball through the rendezvous window that appeared as "a tunnel with a bright spot in the middle."
1972-11-01 / Sary Shagan Weapons Testing Range, USSR