The NASA mission transcript scanning project
This page should be moved to the Apollo Flight Journal. [edit] Sidebar to "We have liftoff! - The story behind the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo air-to-ground transmissions"
By Glen E. Swanson, Spaceflight Vol 43 February 2001
For the first time ever, NASA has digitally scanned all of the transcripts made from both the onboard tapes and those tape recordings made on the ground from the air-to-ground transmissions of the Mercury through Apollo missions and placed them on a two CD-ROM set. Entitled The Mission Transcript Collection: US Human Space Flight Missions from Mercury Redstone 3 to Apollo 17 (NASA SP-2000-4602) this special CD-ROM collection contains 80 transcripts totalling nearly 45,000 pages of text covering every US human space flight from the first human Mercury mission through the last lunar landing flight of Apollo 17.
| Apollo 17 Command Module Onboard Voice Transcription Recorded on the Data Storage Equipment (DSE) MSC-07633, January 1973, 746 pages. | |
| Apollo 17 Lunar Module Onboard Voice Transcription Recorded on the Data Storage Equipment Assembly (DSEA) MSC-07630, January 1973, 411 pages. | |
| Apollo 17 Mission Commentary - Voice Transmissions, 223 pages | |
| Apollo 17 Spacecraft Commentary, 1,964 pages. | |
| Apollo 17 Spacecraft Commentary with the Command Module Only, 223 pages. | |
| Apollo 17 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription (GOSS NET 1) MSC-07629, December 1972, 2,461 pages. |
Through the combined efforts of the history offices at NASA Headquarters and the Johnson Space Center, searchable Adobe Acrobat PDF scans of these mission transcripts were made from the best available copies housed in NASA's historical archives. The need for a more efficient distribution form of this primary historical resource was prompted by numerous requests from researchers and the public for print copies of the mission transcripts. Because many of these transcripts number thousands of pages in size, producing hardcopies and distributing them is both an expensive and time-consuming task. In addition, duplication exposes the original copies to unnecessary handling and risk of damage. By making high-quality one-time scans and packaging them in a user friendly CDROM, complete sets of these documents become more easily available to the public with the added benefit of allowing users to do text searches using the scanned Adobe Acrobat PDF files or print hard copies that are close to original quality.
The two CD-ROM set includes an index listing each transcript file by name. Some of the transcripts include a detailed explanation of their contents and how they were made. Also included in this collection is a listing of all the original air-to-ground audiotapes housed in NASA's archives from which many of these transcripts were made. Copies of the CD set are available free through NASA by sending a self-addressed, padded envelope with $4.00 affixed in postage (for North American Orders) or $8 affixed in postage for all overseas orders, to: NASA Headquarters Information Center, Mail Code CI-4, 300 E Street SW, Room 1H23, Washington, DC 20546-0001, PH: 202-358-0000.
The Mission Transcript Collection: U.S. Human Spaceflight Missions from Mercury Redstone 3 to Apollo 17 (SP-2000-4602, 2001). Now available commercially from CG Publishing. To order send an International Money Order for $8.00 to CG Publishing Inc, Box 62034, Burlington, Ontario, L7R 4K2, Canada or call 905-637-5737.