Human Space Flight Collection
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/10657.1/288
The Human Space Flight (HSF) Collection was initiated as a collecting focus for the UHCL Archives following its receiving custody of the Johnson Space Center History Collection in 2001. The goal of the Human Space Flight Collection is to collect original archival materials and personal papers from individuals involved in the space industry, from individuals who worked and researched in the field of human space flight, or those individuals who work for NASA at the Johnson Space Center or for any of its contractors during any given time period. The focus of the collection is to collecting papers from those who spent time working at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Personal papers offer insight into the history and operation of human space flight that otherwise may be lost by relying only on official administrative records. They reveal professional interests and opinions that frequently clarify matters mentioned in official records. Personal viewpoints expressed in personal correspondence and documentation resulting from service may provide a better basis for understanding a given program, decision-making process, or scientific development.
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Browsing Human Space Flight Collection by Subject "Johnson Space Center"
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Item Finding Aid for the David L. Eichblatt Papers (HSF-61)(UHCL Archives staff, 2023)The David L. Eichblatt Papers is composed of memos, correspondence, photographs, booklets, manuals, notes, maps, design plans, articles, scientific test information, scientific data, and miscellaneous materials, documenting the service of David L. Eichblatt at NASA Johnson Space Center from 1964 to 2009. Most of this collection consists of data Eichblatt collected as an engineer while he worked constructing, planning, and testing the aerodynamics on different spacecraft for NASA and the U.S. Air Force—mostly with the Space Shuttle orbiter program. During this period, he was in charge of the simulation programs for the testing of the Space Shuttle orbiters. Eichblatt’s projects included testing flights by comparing tire speeds, rollouts, landing, touchdowns, nose wheel contact, tail cone effects, number of engines, engine weights and fuel, parachutes, wings and parawing models, in different weather conditions, runway conditions, and different gravity effects for spacecraft and aircraft used by NASA. The collection contains study booklets prepared by Eichblatt, such as a take-off and landing performance study for the space shuttle orbiter vehicle in 1970, with data collection and hand-drawn aircraft information in them. There are materials documenting Eichblatt’s role in the simulation programs for the Shuttle, including the landing dynamics program, which simulated orbiter separation and derotation of the Shuttle orbiter following touchdown through nose wheel contact. There are research materials on the feasibility for the use of the modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) to transport the Shuttle orbiter in the 1970s. The collection includes a set of photographs, a hand drawing, and data collection used by Eichblatt during his role in testing for a lunar motorcycle between 1969 and 1970. The collection also includes a set of rare, square photographic prints documenting his involvement in the Australian landing sites evaluation and survey with the Assured Crew Return Vehicle (ACRV) in 1993. This was part of the U.S. and Russia examining whether Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft could serve as stop-gap lifeboat spacecraft as NASA was designing a lifeboat for use for their planned Space Station Freedom. These are very unique images of an international NASA partnership with Australian space exploration personnel. The collection has an article, landing observations information, meeting agendas, photographs, documents, English-Russian translations, and letters, from Eichblatt’s role as leader of NASA team of four Americans and one Australian to Russia and Kazakhstan to observe the landing and recovery of the Soyuz TM-16 crew and capsule.Item Finding Aid for the Donald J. Incerto Papers (HSF-66)(UHCL Archives staff, 2023)The Donald J. Incerto Papers is composed of training manuals, handbooks, workbooks, guides, correspondence, reports, binders, presentations, handwritten scientific calculations and notes, notes, documents, and miscellaneous materials, created, used, and/or kept by Donald J. Incerto while he worked at NASA Johnson Space Center between 1962 and 1987. Incerto would work in a variety of positions from the Apollo Program through the planning for the Space Station. The majority of the collection is composed of Incerto’s manuals, information and document binders, training materials, and planning documents for the development of the Space Shuttle Program in the late 1970s to early 1980s, and the planning of the Space Shuttle in 1986 and 1987. There are also a number of NASA contractor materials for programs from Apollo through the Space Shuttle. The materials for the planning of the Space Station are the most original items in the collection, as these items laid the groundwork for the United States’ eventual development of the International Space Station. Perhaps the most unique item in the collection is an original Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) photo-map book, produced and used at NASA Johnson Space Center Flight Control (SSR) around 1975. This map book used oversized color satellite photographs of the Earth, which were glued back-to-back to create double-sided photographic map pages of the Earth for use by American and Soviet Union space personnel during the operations of the ASTP project.Item Finding Aid for the Francis Johnson Jr. Papers(UHCL Archives staff, 2023)The Francis Johnson Jr. Papers is composed of handwritten scientific and mathematical calculations, handwritten notes, memorandums, technical reports, internal NASA notes, and miscellaneous papers, authored, created, or kept by Francis Johnson Jr. between 1962 and 1970 while working at NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas. He would work during this period as an aerospace engineer in trajectory analysis in the Mission Analysis Branch (MAB) during the Apollo Program, where he calculated trajectories to and from the Moon for space travel. The collection includes a large number of published internal Manned Spacecraft Center notes authored or co-authored by Johnson, featuring his technical calculations and review of project work for the Apollo Program. There are original copies of memos written by or to Johnson, mainly dealing with lunar trajectory calculations. There are also Johnson’s handwritten research papers and calculation notes that he originally stored in binders, containing mathematical workings, graphed trajectory calculations, scientific equation workings, and other notes, used to calculate lunar trajectories for the Apollo Program missions. The collection is significant for demonstrating the process by which engineers worked through the problem of space travel and lunar trajectories for spacecraft at NASA during the 1960s.Item Finding Aid for the George Strouhal Papers(UHCL Archives staff, 2023)The George Strouhal Papers is composed of NASA corporate contractor records and reports, reports, white papers and papers, manuals, research binders, memorandums, brochures, booklets, a poster, college course lecture notes, course assignment records, and miscellaneous materials, created and used by George Strouhal during his career working at NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center (later Johnson Space Center) between the 1960s and 1970s. Strouhal was a mechanical engineer known for his work focusing on thermal protection systems for the Apollo Program and Space Shuttle Program. The bulk of the collection is composed of Strouhal’s copies of official NASA corporation contractors’ reports, papers, records, and other materials, from the 1950 through 1970s. There are miscellaneous NASA, contractors, and various organizations’ aerospace research materials that he retained while working at NASA. The collection includes course notes kept by Strouhal during his undergraduate and other educational course work in the 1950s and 1960s.Item Finding Aid for the Joe D. Gamble Papers, 1969-1995 (#2018-0005)(UHCL Archives staff, 2018) Gamble, Joe D.The Joe D. Gamble Papers is composed of original materials Joe D. Gamble gathered from his personal work files while employed at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, from his time working there between around 1963 and 1993. Most of the material in this collection is from his time as the Chief Engineer for the Assured Crew Return Vehicle (ACRV) Program, that began under the Space Station Freedom (SSF) Program and then transitioned to the International Space Station (ISS) Program. It covers his work with the Soviet Union on the use by NASA of the use of a modified Russian Soyuz vehicle for the Space Station rescue vehicle.Item Finding Aid for the Reuben E. Taylor Papers (HSF-73)(UHCL Archives staff, 2023) Taylor, Reuben E.The Reuben E. Taylor Papers is composed of memorandums, operating manuals, publications, technical drawings, technical manuals, technical reports, presentation slides, and miscellaneous materials, used and kept by Reuben E. Taylor during his time working at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The majority of the materials within the Reuben E. Taylor Papers were used by Taylor during his time working in the Space Shuttle Program Management Operations Effectiveness office. The bulk of the materials are memorandums, technical manuals, and operating manuals used by Taylor between 1981 and 1984 in regards to the planning for the Space Shuttle Program’s launching of the Orbiter. Also within the Reuben E. Taylor Papers are the plans for the Vandenberg Project, and documents from NASA’s partnership with Ariane Space. Similarly, technical drawings, technical reports, publications, and presentation slides from NASA general management are kept within the Reuben E. Taylor Papers collection.Item Finding Aid for the Robert V. Grilli Papers (HSF-63)(UHCL Archives staff, 2023)The Robert V. Grilli Papers is composed of reports, memos, notes, technical manuals and handbooks, checklists, guides, schedules, technical requirements records, technical documents, directories, training manuals, meeting logs, telephone directories, plans, charts, reel-to-reel audiotapes, and other materials, documenting the career of Robert V. Grilli as a contractor with Philco-Ford, Ford Aerospace and Communications Corporation, Rockwell Space Operations Company, and United Space Alliance at Johnson Space Center in coastal Houston, Texas. Grilli worked as a contractor at Johnson Space Center from 1962 to 2011. Most of this collection covers his work on the Space Shuttle Program from 1978 to 1997. Most of the records and manuals document Grilli’s work as a Shuttle program engineer in program requirements, payloads system, telemetry, command data, and communications between 1980 and 1995. There are also Grilli’s personal original reel-to-reel audiotapes of portions of the Apollo 15 mission, Skylab mission, and Skylab 4 mission.Item Finding for the Charles W. Yodzis Papers (HSF-71)(UHCL Archives staff, 2023) Yodzis, Charles W.The Charles W. Yodzis Papers is composed of correspondence, memorandums, organizational charts, handbooks, manuals, technical reports, technical drawings, handwritten research and calculations, engineering performance studies, general propulsion studies, research files, notes, scientific studies, presentation slides, staff lists, photographs, 35mm slides, directories, magazine issues, and miscellaneous materials, created, used, or collected by Charles W. Yodzis from 1957 to 1994. Yodzis served as the Chief of the Primary Propulsion Branch of the Propulsion and Power Division at NASA Johnson Space Center from 1964 through his retirement. Most of the materials were used by Yodzis in his research and design for the engine systems for the Apollo Command Service Module and Lunar Module, and for the Space Shuttle Orbiter—for which he and his team were primarily responsible for developing. The collection consists of materials stored in Yodzis’ original office subject and research files by project, purpose, engine type, and mission names. The collection is unique in that there is a large amount of Yodzis’ original handwritten scientific calculations and notes on all aspects of the development of primary propulsion systems for spacecraft.