A report was even filed by the Gemini 7 mission on Dec. 4, 1965, after the two-man spacecraft had reached orbit, separated from its upper stage booster, and turned around to face that spent segment of rocket. The astronauts, commander Frank Borman and pilot Jim Lovell, saw not just the upper stage but a spangle of debris particles around it and another, larger object they could not explain.
“We have a bogey at 10:00 o’clock high,” called down Borman.
“This is Houston,” the ground responded. “Say again, Seven.”
“I said we have a bogey at 10:00 o’clock high,” Borman said. “We also have very many, it looks like hundreds of little particles going by to the left.”
“Gemini 7, [are] these particles in addition to the booster and the bogey at 10:00 o’clock high?”
“Roger,” Borman responded.
In a scribbled note that is also part of the recent document dump, a NASA official wrote the words “UFO sighting by Borman,” above an official statement which he read to the press. “The master tape is here in the control room and we are now prepared to play it for you,” he said. “It contains references to sighting not only some particles [but] an unidentified object, plus the booster.”