Hasselblad Space Shuttle Reels

Scope and Contents

This donation consists of forty-four 70mm color positive film reels containing still photography captured by a Hasselblad camera during the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Space Transportation System (STS), better known the Space Shuttle Program. The reels include images, mostly Earth observational and orbital photographs, from twenty-two missions during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically by mission.

Biographical / Historical

Hasselblad cameras have been used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as early as Project Mercury in the 1960s. The cameras were later developed, modified, and employed in foundational human spaceflight programs as such the Apollo missions. By the beginning of Space Shuttle era in the 1970s, Hasselblad cameras were standard use for still photography in space. During NASA's Space Transportation System (STS), crewmembers had 70mm handheld Hasselblad cameras to use on the flight deck in addition to the cameras mounted within the shuttle. When shuttle missions returned to Earth, flight films went to the Johnson Space Center lab for processing post-flight. NASA kept the originals, and masters were created to be distributed to authorized interested parties. Hasselblad likely retained copies of the film to review functionality and troubleshoot technical issues.