This collection consists a memo and correspondence relating to the Apollo 8 broadcast as well as notes relating to various astronaut post-flight tours.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of the following: a memo to Hew Ryan, Deputy Director at the United States Information Agency (USIA), explaining how Simon Bourgin came to be the cocreator of the idea that the Apollo 8 crew read from the book of Genesis from the dark side of the moon; two letters Bourgin wrote Frank Frederick Borman, II on what he might say during that broadcast; notes on the Apollo 11 crew's world tour after their flight; and notes made from the East Asia tour of Borman and Walter Marty "Wally" Schirra, Jr. after the Gemini missions.
Arrangement:
No arrangment
Biographical / Historical:
Simon Bourgin was a Science Policy Officer at the United States Information Agency (USIA) during the late 1960s and early 1970s. During that time, Bourgin was the liaison with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and in this capacity he was in charge of NASA's information overseas. Bourgin was also the political escort for the astronauts on the foreign tours they made upon returning from space.
Provenance:
Simon Bourgin, Gift, 1995, NASM.1995.0025
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Future of the bioscience program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration report [Prepared by Philip P. Dickinson, in consultation with Frank R. Hammill, Jr.]
Author:
United States Congress House Committee on Science and Astronautics Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications Search this
Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. took the first human-captured, color still photographs of the Earth during his three-orbit mission on February 20, 1962, with an Ansco Autoset model camera. This collection consists of a packet of four 35mm color slides produced from color photographs taken by Glenn during his space flight, which Ansco included with each purchase of its Ansco Autoset 35mm camera as an advertising promotion.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of a packet of four Anscochrome 35 mm color slides (transparencies) produced from color photographs taken by astronaut John Glenn during his space flight, which Ansco included with each purchase of its Ansco Autoset 35 mm camera as an advertising promotion. The collection also includes the original slide envelope with a description of each photograph.
1. View of the Atlas Mountains in Sahara Desert. Coast of Morocco and Atlantic Ocean in foreground.
2. One of the three sunsets Col. Glenn saw.
3. Clouds over the Pacific Ocean.
4. East coast of Florida, Atlantic Ocean in foreground, Gulf of Mexico in center background.
Arrangement:
Slides are presented in original order. Digital images show fronts and backs of slides in reflected light, a view of the slides in transmitted light, and front and back of the original envelope containing the slides.
Biographical / Historical:
Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. took the first human-captured, color still photographs of the Earth during his three-orbit mission on February 20, 1962, with an Ansco Autoset camera. The fully automatic Ansco Autoset model was manufactured for Ansco by the Japanese camera company Minolta, being essentially the same design as the Minolta Hi-Matic. For ease of use by Glenn, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) technicians attached a pistol grip handle and trigger to this commercial 35 mm camera, as well as a large viewfinder on top as Glenn, wearing a spacesuit helmet, could not get his eye close to a built-in viewfinder.
The Ansco brand name dates from the merger in 1901 of two American photography firms, E. & H. T. Anthony & Co. and Scovill Manufacturing. In 1907, the company now known as the Anthony & Scovill Co., producers of photographic films, papers, and cameras, officially changed their name to Ansco. In 1928, Ansco (based in Binghamton, New York) merged with the German photographic company Agfa to form the Agfa-Ansco Corporation which soon came under the control of the German chemical conglomerate IG Farben; the following year Agfa-Ansco's holding company name was changed to American IG Chemical Corporation, although their products retained the Agfa-Ansco brand name. In 1939, American IG was merged with General Aniline to form General Aniline & Film (GAF) with Agfa-Ansco becoming a subsidiary of GAF. Agfa-Ansco's German connections became an issue with the entrance of the United States into World War II, and in 1941 the US government seized GAF's American interests (including Agfa-Ansco) as enemy property. In 1944, "Agfa" was dropped from the name to become the Ansco Division of GAF. The US government continued to run the company for the next twenty years, with GAF not becoming a public firm until 1965. By the late 1970s the Ansco company had ceased the manufacture of film and was effectively dead; in 1978 GAF sold the rights to the Ansco trademark name to a Hong Kong firm which produced the last Ansco brand cameras in the early 1990s.
Related Materials:
The modified Ansco Autoset camera used by astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. on the Mercury Friendship 7 flight is in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection: Camera, 35mm, Glenn, Friendship 7, A19670198000.
Provenance:
Bill Jonscher, Gift, 2019, NASM.2019.0047
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Photographs of Naval Corpsman Arthur B. "Art" Guntner and his career working with the Johnsville Centrifuge at the Aviation Medical Acceleration Laboratory of the Navy Air Development Center Warminster. Capable of generating 40Gs, the Centrifuge was used throughout the early American space program for many different scientific simulations and experiments purposes including as a part of the training of every Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronaut.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of 42 digital images of photographs on a CD and a few other materials relating to Arthur B. "Art" Guntner's time as an Aerospace Medicine Technician at the Naval Air Development Center in Johnsville, Pennsylvania. Black and white photographs show Guntner as well as other U.S. Navy personnel at work with particular emphasis on the centrifuge. Several astronauts appear in photographs including Alan B. Shepard, Jr., John Herschel Glenn, Jr., and Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom. Some images, likely scans of scrapbook pages, contain Project Mercury postage stamps and news clippings about Guntner.
Also included in this collection are promotional materials for the Johnsville Centrifuge and Science Museum from 2011.
Arrangement:
Arranged by material type.
Biographical / Historical:
Born and raised in the mining town of Morgantown, West Virginia, Arthur B. "Art" Guntner joined the Navy in 1958 and graduated from Aerospace Medicine School in 1960. Immediately after graduation, he began as an Aerospace Medicine Technician assigned to the Aviation Medical Acceleration Laboratory at the Johnsville Naval Air Development Center.
U.S. Navy's Johnsville Naval Air Development Center (NADC) in Warminster, Pennsylvania was home to 30 different laboratories in the 1950s and 1960s. In the Aviation Medical Acceleration Laboratory, the largest human centrifuge was constructed from 1947 to 1949 and operated in researching the limits of human tolerance for "G" forces. By late 1959, training and research focused on preparing the first Americans for space flight.
Given their full schedules, the Mercury astronauts weren't present for early runs or "flights" on the centrifuge. Younger staff members, therefore, served as the test subjects for the initial simulations. While working at Johnsville, Guntner flew over 350 flights in the centrifuge, tested the design of G-suits, and participated in many other classified experiments. He was personally involved in the briefing and training of the Mercury astronauts.
Provenance:
Art Guntner, Gift, 2011, NASM.2011.0037
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Skyliner flight 35 --The Columbian Limited --Rocky Jones and the space pirates (Rocky Jones, Space Ranger) --(Rocky Jones, Space Ranger) Shipwrecked on Planet X.
Local Numbers:
FW-ASCH-LP-0287
Harmony.7110
Publication, Distribution, Etc. (Imprint):
New York Harmony 1958
General:
Includes authentic airplane sounds (text by Leo Paris) and train sounds (Homer W. Dunn, editor), with sound effects ; and two "Rocky Jones" stories (scripts by Warren Wilson) & (incidental music by Tony Mottola), featuring Rocky Jones and supporting cast.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
This collection consists of photographs of artist's concept color illustrations that appear to have been prepared for "Air Transportation 2076," an interactive exhibit or display in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's original Air Transportation gallery (opened July 1976) dealing with the different kinds of vehicles that might be used to transport people in the year 2076.
Scope and Contents:
The collection contains 47 color slides, 62 color 5 x 3.5 inch photographic prints, and 66 color 5 x 4 inch negatives; many of the slides, prints, and negatives are duplicates. The images show artist's concept illustrations of various types of hypothetical aircraft including a large amphibian aircraft that runs on nuclear power, an intercity transport, a personal electric fliver, an electric commuter jet, a transonic business jet, a hypersonic transport, a supersonic transport, a transonic transport, a flying wing, and a moon cruiseship with a ground to orbit shuttle. Not all of the negatives are represented as prints.
Arrangement:
Images are arranged in original order.
Biographical / Historical:
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's original Air Transportation gallery, opened July 1, 1976, in the museum's National Mall Building, explored themes of air transportation in the United States including commercial air travel, moving of mail, and government regulation of aviation. When it opened, the gallery included a number of components, including "Air Transportation 2076," an interactive exhibit or display imagining the different kinds of vehicles that might be used to transport people in the year 2076. The Air Transportation gallery was updated periodically throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and replaced in November 2007 by a new exhibition, America by Air.
Provenance:
NASM Collections, transfer, 2008, NASM.XXXX.0683
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Search this
Extent:
.18 Cubic feet ((1 box))
2.062 Gigabytes ((17 digital images))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Gigabytes
Cd-roms
Digital images
Photographs
Date:
bulk 2003
Summary:
Photography by Robert McCullough, with The Dallas Morning News, capturing the reentry and disintegration of Space Shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains 17 digital images showing the disintegration of the Space Shuttle Columbia upon its reentry on February 1, 2003. These images were shot by the donor, Robert McCullough, with his Canon EOS Elan 7E with a Canon 75-300mm Image Stabilizer Zoom set at 300mm and a 2x converter (600mm, 12x). McCullough held the camera in hand due to the speed of its traverse, and some images exhibit these camera movements. Prints on FujiChrome Provia 400F were made of the focused images and included in the donation as two sets of ten prints. The second set of these ten images are the original full frame images while the first set are duplicates enlarged to show details. The copyright for the images is held by The Dallas Morning News.
Arrangement:
Photos are in orginial order, which is chronological.
Biographical / Historical:
The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentry on February 1, 2003 due to a failure in the shuttle's heat-resistant tiles, which were damaged during its launch. As the shuttle reentered Earth's atmosphere, the compromised tiles allowed intense heat to penetrate the spacecraft, leading to its breakup over Texas. The loss of Columbia and its seven crew members highlighted the critical importance of safety measures and thorough risk assessment in space missions, prompting NASA to undertake extensive changes in shuttle design, inspection procedures, and safety protocols to prevent such a disaster from happening again.
Provenance:
Robert L. McCullough, Gift, 2004, NASM.2004.0029.
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
Several short films about Black aviation history, Blacks in the Air Force, aerial combat, Tuskegee Airmen, and World War II; and one short film about Robert Goddard and interplanetary space travel. Titles transcribed from physical asset include 'Blacks in Aviation,' 'Blackwings,' and 'Father of Space Age: Robert Goddard.'
Short films. Related to the exhibition 'Black Wings: The American Black in Aviation Audiovisual Records.' Undated.
Biographical / Historical:
The exhibition, Black Wings: The American Black in Aviation, profiled the men and women who had to overcome enormous social pressures in order to gain the right to pursue the dream of flight in both military and civilian circles. The exhibition, originally created and displayed at the National Air and Space Museum, was dedicated to the American Black Aviator, who has anonymously played a historic role in shaping the growth of modern aviation. See an expanded version of the exhibition circulated by SITES, including among its additional artifacts photo murals and audio-visual programs, and the flight suit worn by black astronaut Guion Bluford during preparations for his 1983 space shuttle flight. The SITES exhibition is divided into four parts: Headwinds, the black pioneers of World War I and the early 1920s; Flight Lines, the changing role of blacks in the 1930s and '40s; Wings for War, black involvement in World War II; and Era of Change, their breakthroughs in commercial aviation after World War II. The collection, Black Wings: The American Black in Aviation Audiovisual Records, contains the audiovisual materials created when the exhibit was borrowed and adapted for exhibit at the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum from April 1, 1984 - August 5, 1984.
Series Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Some items are not accessible due to obsolete format and playback machinery restrictions. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Search this
Extent:
16.75 Cubic feet (12 flat boxes, 6 record center boxes, 6 document boxes, one map folder, and 25 VHS tapes.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Correspondence
Photographs
Date:
1980s -2000s
Summary:
This collection consists of 16 cubic feet of archival material relating to the astronaut career of Kalpana Chawla, 1980s-2000s.
This collection is in English.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of 16 cubic feet of material relating to the astronaut career of Kalpana Chawla, 1980s-2000s. The collection includes the following types of archival material: photographs, correspondence, news articles and related documentation. The correspondence is between Kalpana Chawla and her immediate family, as well as condolence letters and e-mails received by the family after her tragic death.
Arrangement:
Arranged by type and shipment.
Biographical / Historical:
Kalpana Chawla was the first woman of Indian origin to become a NASA astronaut and fly on space missions. Born and educated in India (Karnal, Punjab), she came to the United States for graduate education in aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) and the University of Colorado. After earning a Ph.D. in 1988, she began work at NASA's Ames Research Center in computational fluid dynamics. Selected into the astronaut corps in 1994, she first flew as a mission specialist and robotic arm operator for the STS-87 microgravity research mission on Columbia in 1997. Her second flight on Columbia, the STS-107 research mission in 2003, ended tragically when the damaged orbiter disintegrated during its return through the atmosphere and the entire crew perished. Even before her untimely death, Chawla was a national hero in India, having risen from humble beginnings to attain the remarkable achievement of spaceflight. In India, schools and scholarships are named in her honor and her birthday is widely celebrated, and she is also memorialized in the United States. Her ashes were scattered in Zion National Park, Utah.
Provenance:
Sunita Chaudhry, Gift, 2020, NASM.2020.0004
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
The David M. Brown Papers consist of almost twelve cubic feet of archival material documenting his career as a U.S. Navy flight surgeon, naval aviator, and NASA astronaut. It includes Brown's diaries, manuals, checklists, certificates, workbooks, notebooks, and related training materials.
Scope and Contents:
The David M. Brown Papers reflect Brown's career as a U.S. Navy flight surgeon, naval aviator, and NASA astronaut. Represented in some of the collection's correspondence, memoranda, and other materials is his early interest in becoming an astronaut, his applying to NASA, and his selection by the space agency as an astronaut candidate. Most of this collection consists of materials related to his professional work. A large part of this series is composed of technical manuals, handbooks and checklists. Also included in this grouping are official U.S. Navy/NASA documents, correspondence, memoranda, drafts, worksheets, reports, handouts, briefings, notes, photographs, invitations, programs, pamphlets, books, booklets, guidebooks, magazines, journals, and miscellaneous materials. The rest of the collection contains a small amount of personal materials. This includes personal documents from Brown (birth certificate, passports, etc.), correspondence, day planners, yearbooks, photographs, and miscellaneous materials. The collection also includes 160 mini DV (SD) tapes that Brown shot of the astronaut crew training for STS-107 Columbia.
Arrangement:
The Brown Papers are organized into two broad series. First, is the material pertaining to Brown's personal life. This includes personal documents, correspondence, day planners, yearbooks and photographs. The second series contains papers revolving around Brown's professional life. This includes official U.S. Navy/NASA documents, correspondence, memoranda, notes, drafts, reports, handouts, briefings, a variety of manuals, checklists, handbooks, procedures and instructions, notebooks, photographs, invitations, programs, pamphlets, books, guidebooks, magazines, journals, and miscellaneous materials. Brown's papers are arranged both chronologically and alphabetically. Official and personal documents, correspondence, memoranda, notes, drafts, worksheets, photographs, invitations, programs, pamphlets, magazines, journals, day planners, yearbooks and miscellaneous materials are organized by the former method. Reports, handouts, briefings, manuals, handbooks, checklists, procedures, instructions, books, booklets, and guidebooks are arranged alphabetically by title. The reader will note that the parts of this finding aid containing manuals, handbooks, checklists, procedures, and instructions are further organized into the following groupings: NASA only, corporation/contractor only, jointly-issued NASA and corporation/contractor, and miscellaneous.
The reader should note that this group of material also contains a collection of films pertaining to Brown's life and career as an astronaut. A National Air and Space Museum (NASM) Archives staff person can assist you regarding access to these films.
SERIES I -- Personal Papers
Personal Documents
Correspondence
Day Planners
Yearbooks
Photographs
Miscellaneous Materials
SERIES II -- Professional Papers
Official U.S. Navy/NASA Documents
Correspondence
Memoranda
Notes, Drafts, and Worksheets
Reports, Handouts, and Briefings
Manuals, Handbooks, Checklists, Procedures, and Instructions
Notebooks and Workbooks
Photographs
Invitations, Programs, and Pamphlets
Books
Booklets and Guidebooks
Magazines and Journals
Newsletters
News Clippings
Miscellaneous Materials
Oversized Materials
Biographical / Historical:
David M. Brown was a U.S. Navy officer, flight surgeon, naval aviator, and Space Shuttle astronaut. Born in Arlington, Virginia, on April 16, 1956, Brown earned a B.S. in biology from the College of William and Mary in 1978 and a doctorate in medicine from Eastern Virginia Medical School in 1982. During his years in college, he performed in the Circus Kingdom as an unicyclist, stilt walker, and acrobat. Upon completing an internship at the Medical University of South Carolina, Brown joined the Navy and finished his flight surgeon training in 1984. After a stint as director of medical services at the Navy Branch Hospital in Adak, Alaska, he was then assigned to Carrier Airwing Fifteen which deployed aboard the USS Carl Vinson in the western section of the Pacific Ocean. In 1988, Brown was selected for pilot training, the only flight surgeon chosen for this program in over ten years. Two years later, he was designated a naval aviator and ranked first in his class. Subsequently, Brown was sent for training and carrier qualification in the Grumman A-6E Intruder. In 1991, he was attached to the Naval Strike Warfare Center in Fallon, Nevada, where he served as a Strike Leader Attack Training Syllabus Instructor and a Contingency Cell Planning Officer. The following year, he was sent to serve aboard the USS Independence, flying the A-6E with squadron VA-115. In 1995, he reported to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School as their flight surgeon. By this time, Brown was qualified in a variety of military aircraft, including the McDonnell Douglas F-18 Hornet and the Northrop T-38 Talon. All told, Brown accumulated over 2,700 hours with 1,700 in high performance military aircraft.
For a long time, Brown harbored a strong desire to become an astronaut. During the mid 1990s, he applied for admission into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) astronaut corps. In April 1996, Brown was selected as an astronaut candidate by the space agency and reported to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, later that year. By 1998, he completed his training and evaluation, and was qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. Initially, Brown was given the task of supporting payload development for the International Space Station (ISS), followed by an assignment on the astronaut support team responsible for Space Shuttle cockpit setup, crew strap-in, and landing recovery. Eventually, he was assigned a flight aboard Space Shuttle Columbia for the STS-107 mission. Columbia was launched from the Kennedy Space center (KSC) on January 16, 2003. This 16-day flight was dedicated to scientific research while in Earth orbit. On February 1, after the successful in-space mission and only minutes from its scheduled landing at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Cape Canaveral, Florida, the orbiter suffered structural failure upon reentry into the atmosphere and disintegrated over Texas and Louisiana. Brown, as well as the other six members of the STS-107 crew, was killed in the accident. Brown logged 15 days, 22 hours and 20 minutes of space flight experience.
The following chronology covers key events in Brown's life, as well as in the realm of space exploration history. Events involving Brown are shown in normal type while those of the latter are shown in bold type.
1956 April 16 -- Brown born in Arlington, Virginia
1957 October 4 -- Russia's successful launch of first artificial satellite,Sputnik 1
1958 January 31 -- Successful launch of first U.S. artificial satellite,Explorer 1
1961 April 12 -- Russia's successful launch of first human into space, Yuri Gagarin aboardVostok 1
1961 May 5 -- Successful launch of first U.S. astronaut into space, Alan Shepard aboard Mercury-Redstone 3 (Freedom 7)
1969 July 16-24 -- Flight ofApollo 11succeeds in landing U.S. astronauts on the moon
1972 -- The Nixon administration approves the Space Shuttle as a national program
1974 -- Brown graduates from Yorktown High School, Yorktown, Virginia
1977 August-October -- Series of five Approach and Landing Tests (within the atmosphere) of Space ShuttleEnterprise
1978 -- Brown graduates from William and Mary College with a B.S. in biology
1981 April 12 -- First launch into earth orbit for the Space Shuttle program byColumbia(STS-1)
1982 -- Brown graduates from Eastern Virginia Medical School with a doctorate in Medicine (M.D.)
1984 -- Brown completes his U.S. Navy flight surgeon training
1986 January 28 -- Space ShuttleChallenger(STS-51-L) explodes shortly after launch, killing all on board
1988 -- Brown is selected by the U.S. Navy for pilot training
1988 September 29 -- Return to flight of the Space Shuttle program byDiscovery(STS-26)
1990 -- Brown is designated as a naval aviator and ranks first in his class
1990 April 24 -- Launch of Space ShuttleDiscovery(STS-31) with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) as payload
1991 -- Brown is attached to the Naval Strike Warfare Center in Fallon, Nevada
1992 -- Brown serves aboard aircraft carrier USS Independence and pilots the Grumman A-6E Intruder aircraft with VA-115
1995 -- Brown reports to U.S. Naval Test Pilot School as the flight surgeon
1996 April -- Brown is selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate (ASCAN)
1998 -- Brown successfully completes his astronaut training and evaluation
1998 October 29 -- Launch of Space ShuttleDiscovery(STS-95) with astronaut John Glenn returning to space after his first orbital flight aboardFriendship 7in 1962
2003 January 16 -- Launch of Brown and the crew of Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107)
2003 February 1 -- STS-107 disintegrates over Texas and Louisiana shortly before scheduled landing at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, with the loss of Brown and the crew
Provenance:
Paul and Dorothy Brown, Gift, 2006
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Search this
Extent:
2.18 Cubic feet ((2 records center boxes))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Correspondence
Notes
Drawings
Date:
1959
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains data on the Big Joe capsule and its operation. The material includes blueprints of the thermocouple, telemetry, cooling, instrument, intercom, and other systems. It also contains notes and information on operations, afterbody assembly, personnel assignments, and safety measures, as well as other aspects of the work performed with the capsule during the Big Joe project.
Biographical / Historical:
Soon after the organization of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in October 1959, that agency selected Project Mercury as the first United States manned space program. The project was planned to launch a single man into Earth orbit and return him to Earth. Before launching a manned flight NASA planned a series of unmanned launches with the Mercury spacecraft/launch vehicle combinations to insure the success of later manned flights. The first successful launch of an instrumented Mercury boiler plate capsule, dubbed 'Big Joe' occurred on 9 September 1959 on an Atlas-10D booster from Cape Canaveral. The capsule reached an altitude of 161km (100 miles)e successfully reentering the atmosphere.
General:
NASMrev
Provenance:
A. Martin Eibrand, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Gift, unknown, XXXX-0189, unknown
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
This collection contains materials from Mahr's work on the following projects: EOS Landsat, Orbiter, LST Hubble, Navaho, Skylab, Apollo, and the Shuttle Robot Retrieval Arm. In addition, there are also promotional materials from Rockwell International's Space Division pertaining to various spacecraft.
Biographical / Historical:
Burnley Mahr's career as an aerospace designer began at the University of Minnesota, where he studied engineering in the 1950s. Following employment with Boeing, North American Aviation, and North American Rockwell, he worked for Rockwell International's Space & Information Systems in Downey, California. Throughout the span of his career, Mahr worked on the following projects: Navaho, Gemini, Apollo, Orbiter, LST Hubble, the Shuttle, satellite systems, and the Space Station (Skylab). His most important contribution was the design of the Shuttle Robot Retrieval Arm for the deployment and plucking of satellites in outer space.
General:
NASMrev
Provenance:
Douglas Mahr, gift, 1996, 1996-0031, unknown
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests