Historic American Buildings Survey,
Engineering Record, Landscapes Survey
View drawings from this survey. (Some may not be online).
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Space Transportation System, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Harris County, TX
- Title: Space Transportation System, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Harris County, TX
- Creator(s): Historic American Engineering Record, creator
- Related Names:
U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Smithsonian Institution
Deming, Joan , historian
Slovinac, Patricia , historian
Archaeological Consultants, Inc. (ACI) , contractor
QinetiQ North America , contractor
Wolfe, Jeffrey , field team
Nehr, Adam , field team
Farrar, Tom , field team
Behrens, Thomas M. , program manager
Wachtel, John , delineator
Klimek, Joseph , delineator
Pierce, Ryan , delineator
Smart GeoMetrics , contractor
Lowe, Jet , photographer
U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Johnson Space Center (JSC), Space Shuttle Program Transition and Retirement Office , sponsor - Date Created/Published: Documentation compiled after 1968
- Medium:
Measured Drawing(s): 6
Data Page(s): 729 - Reproduction Number: ---
- Rights Advisory:
No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. (http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html)
- Call Number: HAER TX-116
- Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
- Notes:
- Significance: The Orbiter Discovery, OV-103, is considered eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in the context of the U.S. Space Shuttle Program (1969-2011) under Criterion A in the areas of Space Exploration and Transportation and under Criterion C in the area of Engineering. Because it has achieved significance within the past fifty years, Criteria Consideration G applies. Under Criterion A, Discovery is significant as the oldest of the three extant orbiter vehicles constructed for the Space Shuttle Program (SSP), the longest running American space program to date; she was the third of five orbiters built by NASA. Unlike the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, the SSP’s emphasis was on cost effectiveness and reusability, and eventually the construction of a space station. Including her maiden voyage (launched August 30, 1984), Discovery flew to space thirty-nine times, more than any of the other four orbiters; she was also the first orbiter to fly twenty missions. She had the honor of being chosen as the Return to Flight vehicle after both the Challenger and Columbia accidents. Discovery was the first shuttle to fly with the redesigned SRBs, a result of the Challenger accident, and the first shuttle to fly with the Phase II and Block I SSME. Discovery also carried the Hubble Space Telescope to orbit and performed two of the five servicing missions to the observatory. She flew the first and last dedicated Department of Defense (DoD) missions, as well as the first unclassified defense-related mission. In addition, Discovery was vital to the construction of the International Space Station (ISS); she flew thirteen of the thirty-seven total missions flown to the station by a U.S. Space Shuttle. She was the first orbiter to dock to the ISS, and the first to perform an exchange of a resident crew. Under Criterion C, Discovery is significant as a feat of engineering. According to Wayne Hale, a flight director from Johnson Space Center, the Space Shuttle orbiter represents a “huge technological leap from expendable rockets and capsules to a reusable, winged, hypersonic, cargo-carrying spacecraft.” Although her base structure followed a conventional aircraft design, she used advanced materials that both minimized her weight for cargo-carrying purposes and featured low thermal expansion ratios, which provided a stable base for her Thermal Protection System (TPS) materials. The Space Shuttle orbiter also featured the first reusable TPS; all previous spaceflight vehicles had a single-use, ablative heat shield. Other notable engineering achievements of the orbiter included the first reusable orbital propulsion system, and the first two-fault-tolerant Integrated Avionics System. As Hale stated, the Space Shuttle remains “the largest, fastest, winged hypersonic aircraft in history,” having regularly flown at twenty-five times the speed of sound.
- Survey number: HAER TX-116
- Subjects:
- Place:
- Latitude/Longitude: 29.552348, -95.093708
- Collections:
- Part of: Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress)
- Bookmark This Record:
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/tx1106/
The Library of Congress generally does not own rights to material in its collections and, therefore, cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material. For further rights information, see "Rights Information" below and the Rights and Restrictions Information page ( https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/rights.html ).
- Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
- Reproduction Number: ---
- Call Number: HAER TX-116
- Medium:
Measured Drawing(s): 6
Data Page(s): 729
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- Data Pages
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- Call Number: HAER TX-116
- Medium:
Measured Drawing(s): 6
Data Page(s): 729
Please use the following steps to determine whether you need to fill out a call slip in the Prints and Photographs Reading Room to view the original item(s). In some cases, a surrogate (substitute image) is available, often in the form of a digital image, a copy print, or microfilm.
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Is the item digitized? (A thumbnail (small) image will
be visible on the left.)
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Yes, the item is digitized. Please use the digital image in preference to requesting the original. All images can be viewed at a large size when you are in any reading room at the Library of Congress. In some cases, only thumbnail (small) images are available when you are outside the Library of Congress because the item is rights restricted or has not been evaluated for rights restrictions.
As a preservation measure, we generally do not serve an original item when a digital image is available. If you have a compelling reason to see the original, consult with a reference librarian. (Sometimes, the original is simply too fragile to serve. For example, glass and film photographic negatives are particularly subject to damage. They are also easier to see online where they are presented as positive images.)
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No, the item is not digitized. Please go to #2.
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Do the Access Advisory or Call Number fields above indicate that
a non-digital surrogate exists, such as microfilm or copy prints?
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Yes, another surrogate exists. Reference staff can direct you to this surrogate.
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No, another surrogate does not exist. Please go to #3.
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If you do not see a thumbnail image or a reference to another surrogate, please fill out a call slip in the Prints and Photographs Reading Room. In many cases, the originals can be served in a few minutes. Other materials require appointments for later the same day or in the future. Reference staff can advise you in both how to fill out a call slip and when the item can be served.
To contact Reference staff in the Prints and Photographs Reading Room, please use our Ask A Librarian service or call the reading room between 8:30 and 5:00 at 202-707-6394, and Press 3.
