Space Shuttle audio recordings
Collection
0582-MMC
The Space Shuttle was a spacecraft system operated by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 1981 to 2011. The Space Shuttle program carried out routine transportation of both people and cargo, from Earth into orbit. During the thirty years of its operation, the Space Shuttle flew 135 missions, two of which were failures. The Challenger disaster in 1986 (flight STS-51-L) resulted in the grounding of the Space Shuttle program for two years, and the Columbia disaster in 2003 (flight STS-107) led to a similar pause in operations and reevaluation of safety protocols. The final space shuttle flight took place in July 2011.
This collection consists of 50 reel-to-reel audio tapes, each containing broadcasts from dozens of radio and television outlets of individual Space Shuttle flights. The recordings include the first orbital spaceflight of the Space Shuttle program, also known as Space Transportation System (STS) in April 1981, and continue through April 3, 1986.
This collection is open to the public and must be used in the Special Collections reading room. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection.
Photocopies or digital surrogates may be provided in accordance with Special Collections and University Archives duplication policy. Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs unless otherwise specified. It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission to publish materials from the appropriate copyright holder.
Archival materials may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws or other regulations. While we make a good faith effort to identify and remove such materials, some may be missed during our processing. If a researcher finds sensitive personal information in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.
2 Linear Feet (1 Paige box, 1 document box)
50 Tape Reels : audio tapes ; 7" reel
The Space Shuttle was a spacecraft system operated by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 1981 to 2011. Officially called the Space Transportation System (STS), it was a partially reusable system both to send a crew of astronauts beyond Earth's orbit and to come back into it. This collection consists of 50 reel-to-reel audio tapes, each containing broadcasts from dozens of radio and television outlets of individual Space Shuttle flights. Broadcasts were likely recorded from networks such as ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN.
Timeline of flights and notable events related to the recordings.
This collection contains audiovisual materials. Items that cannot be used in the Special Collections reading room or are too fragile for researchers require that a digital copy be made prior to use. If you would like to access these materials, please contact us prior to your visit.
This collection was donated to the University of Maryland Libraries by Scott Sacknoff on July 15, 2022.
These materials were received by the University of Maryland Libraries in July 2022. Materials were inventoried and rehoused by Jim Baxter. In fall 2023, a resource record was created and a collection number assigned. Due to the small size of the collection, the box list was added to the resource record with item level description for each reel.
Part of the Special Collections and University Archives