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Author Topic:   Shuttle Flight Flown Documents
SRB
Member

Posts: 258
From:
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 10-27-2007 09:45 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for SRB   Click Here to Email SRB     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
After a space shuttle flight, who gets to keep the flight manuals and maps used for the flight? In the "old" days, the astronauts were allowed to keep all the "disposable" manuals and maps since they would not be reused on later flights. Is this still true today, or does NASA/the Smithsonian now keep these historic documents?

kyra
Member

Posts: 583
From: Louisville CO US
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 10-27-2007 11:58 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for kyra   Click Here to Email kyra     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The Smithsonian has what is called "first refusal" right on all flown Flight Data File documents which is a roundabout way of saying "first pick". To the best of my knowledge, they keep them all.

The unflown backup set fabricated for each flight goes to the astronauts who flew the mission for souveneirs. Whatever is left over after this is recycled for the next flight (remember most of the material is generic).

The nice thing about the Flight Data File in recent years is that it is available in .pdf format. You can now put the entire 4,000 pages for each mission on a CD-ROM and have plenty of room left over for the Press Kit, In-Flight Anomalies, Mission Report, etc.

Edited by kyra on October 27, 2007 at 11:58 AM.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 10-27-2007 12:06 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by kyra:
The Smithsonian has what is called "first refusal" right on all flown Flight Data File documents which is a roundabout way of saying "first pick". To the best of my knowledge, they keep them all.
I may be mistaken, but I believe today all original (a.k.a. flown) Flight Data Files are transferred directly to the National Archives, rather than the Smithsonian.

Greggy_D
Member

Posts: 977
From: Michigan
Registered: Jul 2006

posted 06-07-2013 07:47 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Greggy_D   Click Here to Email Greggy_D     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yes, the flown FDFs are/were dispatched to the National Archives. Today I happened upon the original request for disposition of the FDFs.

Interesting to note that some crew members of STS-1 thru STS-61C were allowed to keep their flown FDFs. (I know of one shuttle flight where the CDR permitted particular crew members to keep their flown FDFs but denied the request of another crew member to do the same.) After STS-51L, the rules changed and all flown FDFs were remanded to the National Archives. The post-51L crews could not keep nor possess their flown FDFs.

All times are CT (US)

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