ALFMED (Apollo Light Flash Moving Emulsion Detector)

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."