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NASA Archives Research Guide

A NASA Archivist helps a researcher

As the agency’s provider of significant holdings created by NASA, we work to preserve and provide access to NASA’s knowledge, people, processes, and understanding so that it can be discoverable for generations to come. Use the NASA Archives Research Guide to learn where to find other sources of information about NASA history.

The NASA Archives promotes discovery and exploration across the universe of NASA records, organizational history, and institutional memory. Information can be found not only in the NASA archives, but at other repositories and offices around the agency, at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and elsewhere.

We encourage you to approach your research by familiarizing yourself with the universe of information sources about the agency and by browsing related collections and guides. Some holdings may be digitized and available online for easier access. Other holdings may be unprocessed or only in analog form, so may require an appointment for access. For additional guidance, consult the Frequently Asked Questions page.

NASA-Related Holdings at Other Institutions

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NASA Holdings at the National Archives and Records Administration

Permanent records created at NASA are transferred to National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) as part of NARA's Record Group 255. As the official repository for U.S. Government records, NARA holds the largest collection of NASA and NACA records.

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Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Archives

These archival "collections span the history of flight from ancient times to the present day and include a wide range of visual and textual materials, including documents, photographs, motion picture film and video, and more than two million technical drawings."

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ArchiveGrid

Use this union catalog to search across finding aids from repositories in the United States to find NASA and aerospace-related collections. Guides to collections at JPL, Ames Research Center, and some NASA contracting companies are also accessible here.

Other Repositories across NASA

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NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS)

Provides access to NASA metadata records, full-text online documents, images, and videos.

Color photograph of a stack of books

NASA History Publications

History books and other publications from NASA's History Office.

A catalog of images

NASA Image and Video Library

NASA photographs and audiovisual materials.

The NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive page

NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive

This space mission data archive is an authoritative source of launch dates and experiments in addition to a wealth of data and other information.

Oblique view of Shackleton Crater near the Moon’s South Pole. The visualization combines grayscale imagery of the cratered lunar surface with rainbow-colored elevation data layered across parts of the terrain. Deep shadows fill the crater interiors, while the brightly lit crater rims and surrounding rugged landscape stretch into the distance.

NASA Data Repositories

NASA has publicly archived all of its data received from spacecraft projects, including over 4TB of new Earth Science data each day. Get a list of data repositories, grouped by subject.

Archival textual documents

Researching a Family Member?

NASA and it’s preceding organization, the NACA, have employed thousands of people. The archives do not keep personnel or employee records of either federal employees, JPL employees, or NASA contractors (contractor employees are individuals hired by an outside company for NASA projects and are not federal employees).

NASA or NACA Employees

If your relative was a federal employee, you can order their official personnel file from the National Personnel Records Center.

NASA Contractors or JPL Employees

If your relative was a contract employee at NASA or a JPL employee, please contact their previous employer.