NASA Unveils New Batch Of Space Shuttle Program Artifacts

[NASA News <hqnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

August 12, 2011

Michael Curie 
Headquarters, Washington      
202-358-1100 
michael.curie@xxxxxxxx   
RELEASE: 11-259

NASA UNVEILS NEW BATCH OF SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM ARTIFACTS

WASHINGTON -- The final space shuttle landing July 21 opened new 
prospects for eligible education institutions, museums and other 
organizations to receive a piece of spaceflight history. On Monday, 
Aug. 15, the eighth batch of artifacts from NASA's space programs 
will be available on a website that the agency and the General 
Services Administration (GSA) developed. 

The artifacts are not only from the shuttle era, but also from the 
Apollo, Mercury, Hubble Space Telescope programs. The approximately 
2,000 items include: 
-- the Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station, an underwater habitat 
that was used to demonstrate space life support system ideas for use 
on space stations 
-- shuttle heat shield tiles used to test problems experienced during 
missions 
-- parts of Apollo and shuttle era spacesuits, including hard upper 
torso garments to protect astronauts from extreme temperatures 

To view and request space artifacts, visit: 


http://gsaxcess.gov/NASAWel.htm   


Each artifact will be available for 42 days. For the first 21 days, 
internal organizations such as NASA visitor centers, agency exhibit 
managers and the Smithsonian Institution may request artifacts. 
External organizations, including museums, schools, universities, 
libraries, and planetariums may request artifacts during the 
following 21 days. 

After the screening period and completion of the request process, 
organizations will be notified about the status of their application. 

Artifacts are released incrementally when NASA no longer needs them, 
in accordance with export control laws and regulations. They are 
provided free of charge, but requesting organizations must pay for 
shipping and any special handling costs. 

To date, approximately 29,000 items of historic significance have been 
offered, mainly from the shuttle, with contributions from the Hubble, 
Apollo, Mercury, Gemini, and International Space Station programs. 
Approximately 3,000 artifacts have been requested. The remainder will 
be considered for federal and state reuse and then offered to the 
general public for sale. 

For information about NASA's space shuttle transition and artifacts, 
visit: 


http://www.nasa.gov/transition   



http://artifacts.nasa.gov 






In addition to artifacts, NASA also is offering a Shuttle Training 
Aircraft (STA) through another GSA hosted web-based site: 


http://gsaxcess.gov/   


The STA is a modified Gulfstream II that allowed pilots to simulate 
orbiter landings under controlled conditions. Other STAs will be 
displayed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Dryden Flight 
Research Center in California, and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center 
in Huntsville, Ala. 

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: 


http://www.nasa.gov   

	
-end-



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