NASA JSC History Collection
The NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) History Collection was first assembled when the Johnson Space Center opened as the Manned Spacecraft Center in coastal Houston, Texas, in the early 1960s.
In 1962, the newly appointed Historian at the Manned Spacecraft Center began collecting documentation which would eventually be used as source material for chronologies and histories of Projects Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. The archival material collected included office copies (as opposed to record or official copies, required by law to be transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration) of correspondence, meeting minutes, NASA and contractor research and development reports, industry proposals, recorded interviews, and other materials.
Photo Credit: NASA
NASA Johnson Space Center and the University of Houston-Clear Lake Alfred R. Neumann Library agreed to relocate the JSC History Collection to a NASA-constructed storage location in UHCL's University Archives. A Space Act Agreement for a long-term, renewable loan was signed by NASA, the US National Archives and Records Administration, and UHCL in February 2001. The original collection and additional materials from the JSC History Office arrived between 2001 and 2002. As of 2024, NASA Archives refers to this collection as the “Johnson Space Center Archives.”
The collection is organized in the following series:
- Apollo
- Skylab
- Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP)
- Shuttle
- Space Station Freedom
- Center Records
- General Reference
- JSC Oral History Project
This collection has federal accession restrictions in place, including a restriction on access by non-US citizens.
Learn details on how to research in and access the JSC History Collection.