Oral Histories
Complete List of NASA’s Oral History Projects and Participants
The oral history process plays an important role in capturing and preserving the first-hand experiences of individuals, lessons learned, methodologies, and institutional memory. Looking to the future, but taking time to explore the past, helps to explain what enabled projects and programs to succeed as well as what resulted in failures. Oral history can clarify the intent of the people who were on the ground making the decisions and doing the work. Conveyed in their own words, their accounts allow researchers to interpret the events beyond what can be inferred from the official record and documentation. And when documentation is scarce, oral history interviews can fill the gaps.
The transcripts available on this site are created from audio-recorded oral history interviews. To preserve the integrity of the audio record, the transcripts are presented with limited revisions and thus reflect the candid conversational style of the oral history format. Brackets and ellipses indicate where the text has been annotated or edited for clarity. Any personal opinions expressed in the interviews should not be considered the official views or opinions of NASA, the NASA History Office, NASA historians, or staff members.
NASA Senior Leadership
The NASA Senior Leadership interviews are an attempt to document the experiences of NASA’s senior leadership, their personal histories, the lessons learned, their thoughts on NASA’s past, and the decisions made that have directed NASA’s priorities over the years and continue to do so into the future.
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
Before NASA there was NACA – the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Established in 1915, the original focus determined by the federal government was for the advisory panel of 12 members representing the government, military, and industry “to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight, with a view to their practical solutions.” A few years after its inception, the Committee became an organization with a more broadened purpose. During the next 43 years, the work of NACA members impacted aircraft developed for wars and commercial travel. Oral histories with former NACA members capture the experiences of only a handful of people who worked at the facilities but provide the human story of America’s endeavor to serve as the leader in aeronautical research and the technical innovations that resulted from their labors. forward.
Johnson Space Center Oral Histories
Established in 1996, the goal of the NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project was to capture history from the individuals who first provided the country and the world with an avenue to space and the Moon. Participants included managers, engineers, technicians, doctors, astronauts, and aerospace contractors who served in key roles during the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Shuttle, and International Space Station programs.
Shuttle-Mir Program
From early 1994 into 1998, seven American astronauts spent nearly 1000 days living in orbit with Russian cosmonauts on board the space station Mir. Called “Phase 1,” the Shuttle-Mir Program prepared the way for the International Space Station and began an era of cooperation and exploration. The interviews, captured at the end of the Shuttle-Mir Program, were an attempt to document the history of the first major American and Russian partnership after the fall of the Soviet Union, which combined the Space Shuttle’s ready access to space with Russia’s space station Mir.
International Space Station
The International Space Station Oral History Project includes interviews with individuals who have contributed significantly to the success of the ISS Program. The oral history sessions reflect experiences and insight on topics such as the early days of the multi-national partnership, the development of its science program, and the challenges encountered in establishing the orbiting laboratory.
STS Recordation
The STS Recordation interviews involved the collection of history from key individuals formerly associated with the agency’s Space Shuttle Program, focusing on the Orbiter and its related components. The interviews include information on a number of Space Shuttle Program aspects from concept development to retirement and focus on design, hardware evolution, and changes in response to the two Space Shuttle accidents.
Space Shuttle Tacit Knowledge Capture
The Space Shuttle Tacit Knowledge Capture Project interviews, conducted in 2008 at NASA Centers in Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and Houston, are with former key members of the Space Shuttle Program and reflect details of critical program decisions, information on management tools and processes, and lessons learned from areas of expertise.
SCA and SRB Recovery Ships
The SCA and SRB Recovery Ships interviews, captured at the end of the Space Shuttle Program, were an attempt to document the experiences of personnel working with the Space Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and the Solid Rocket Booster Retrieval Ships programs.
Commercial Crew and Cargo Program
From 2006 to 2013, the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program administered by the Commercial Crew & Cargo Program Office (C3PO) at the Johnson Space Center endeavored to stimulate U.S. commercial space transportation capabilities by pursuing a new way of doing business with industry.
Orion Program
The Orion Oral History Project includes interviews with individuals who contributed significantly to the success of the Orion Program. The oral history sessions reflect experiences and insight on topics such as the early days of the Constellation Program and subsequent cancellation, the development of the Orion Program and spacecraft, and the challenges encountered in working toward the first successful launch of the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) on December 5, 2014.
Discovery and New Frontiers
Approved by Congress in 1993, the Discovery Program ushered in a new concept for low-cost science exploration within our solar system—competitively selected missions led by a principal investigator (PI) with an established cost cap and high-value, focused studies.
The New Frontiers Program, established in 2002, followed the Discovery model of competitive selection and PI-led teams but provides a method for selecting medium-class missions with specific exploration objectives determined top-priority within the planetary science community and identified in the Decadal Survey.
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) oral history interviews represent the contributions of a wide selection of individuals involved in the HST program, and also include interviews collected by Christopher Gainor for his book, Not Yet Imagined, A Study of Hubble Space Telescope Operations.
Science Mission Directorate
NASA’s Science Mission Directorate works with America’s scientific community, supporting and sponsoring research in universities across the country. This series of interviews, captured in 2017-2018, are with some of the nation’s top scientists as well as those who helped to shape the NASA’s role in space exploration. Within these transcripts, the interviewees share their memories, anecdotes, and the details of NASA’s scientific exploration of our solar system and the universe, from the Voyager I space probe to the Cassini spacecraft and Mars exploration programs.
Earth System Science
This NASA Oral History Project features recollections from those who significantly contributed to the launch and evolution of Earth System Science. These interviews were gathered as part of the 20th anniversary of the Earth System Science Program.
NASA Chilean Miners Rescue
After a mine collapse in Chile on August 4, 2010, the Chilean government requested technical advice from NASA based on the agency’s experience in protecting humans in the hostile environment of space during long-duration missions. A team of NASA experts traveled to the mine site and were on the scene from August 30 through September 5, 2010. These interviews are with those team members and reflect their experiences throughout the rescue process until the 33 trapped miners were brought back to the surface 69 days after the collapse, alive and surprisingly healthy after their ordeal.
Saturn Rockets
The Saturn Rockets collection contains transcripts of several oral history interviews with project engineers and other personnel who worked on the Saturn rockets.
Stennis Space Center
This anthology of oral history interviews includes interviewees who participated in the Mississippi Oral History Program, the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs, Hurricane Katrina and Stennis Space Center’s 50th Anniversary.
