What happened
UFO lists say an object accompanied the crew almost to the Moon. Oberg says they were joking with mission control about a tumbling, flashing piece of their own booster. On the way home they were puzzled by a light between them and Earth, which turned out to be the Moon's reflection on the night-time Indian Ocean. Separately, audio from the crew's medical debrief, released by the Pentagon on May 22, 2026, has them describing "streaks of light" seen with eyes closed while trying to sleep. These "light flashes" were reported on many Apollo flights and are generally attributed to cosmic rays passing through the eye. The May 8 release also included Apollo 12 surface photos with bright spots in the sky.