Scope and Contents

This part of the Videodisc Imagery Collection, NASM.XXXX.1000, consists of the NASM Archives holdings reproduced on NASM Archival Videodisc 6, Side A, as frames VD-6A29244 through VD-6A31425. This section is a historical series assembled by the NASM Archives in 1989 to provide background information on lunar exploration missions by the United States and the Soviet Union, drawing on photographs then held in the Space History Series of the NASM Technical Reference Files, with additional photography obtained from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Headquarters Public Affairs office and added to the collection. Museum staff added pages of text to create chronologies of American and Soviet lunar missions, Apollo missions, and biographies of the Apollo astronauts. Topics covered by the photography include launch vehicles (rockets), spacecraft, operations, personnel, and equipment such as the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicles and the Apollo Mobile Quarantine Facility. NASA mission photography used to create all other sections of NASM Archival Videodisc 6 was returned to NASA at the completion of videodisc production and is not available from NASM Archives.

Photographs shot on videodisc as NASM 6A30686 through NASM 6A30836 as "LUNAR ROVING VEHICLE (CEPS COLLECTION)" were not found when collection was reboxed in June 2011. It is assumed that these print photographs were returned to the NASM Center for Earth and Planetary Studies (CEPS) after being shot for videodisc.

Arrangement

The materials photographed to produce this section of NASM Archival Videodisc 6, Side A, are arranged in videodisc frame number order, with a corresponding "print number" applied to each photographic print or paper text page in the collection. The print numbers consist of a prefix identifying the file as a NASM Archives image (NASM) followed by the videodisc number and side (6A) and the videodisc frame number (29244 through 31425). Each folder contains a range of 25 print numbers.

As individual photographs are digitized, item-level records will be added to the appropriate folders.

Biographical / Historical

In 1982, faced with the twin challenges of providing rapid access to subject-oriented photography while still attempting to preserve the original prints, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) initiated the NASM Archival Videodisc Program. This optical disc storage technology (LaserDisc) was first marketed to the public in the late 1970s as a means for marketing and distributing motion pictures, but the 12-inch constant angular velocity (CAV) format analogue videodiscs (similar in construction to later digital video discs or DVDs) could also be used to hold still pictures (approximately 50,000 still picture frames per side, or 100,000 images for a double-sided disc). Each frame was numbered, making it easy to access a specific image and "freeze" it for display on a television or video monitor.

NASM Archival Videodisc 6 reproduced National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) photography of American lunar missions beginning with Ranger 7 in 1964 and ending with the flight of Apollo 17 in 1972, and including Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter, and Apollo missions. Apollo imagery included 70 mm color and black-and-white photographs covering astronaut activity on the moon, lunar features, and Earth imagery, and metric mapping photographs. This videodisc was unusual in that it featured a large number of text images interspersed with the photography in historical sections presenting chronologies of American and Soviet lunar missions, Apollo missions, and biographies of the Apollo astronauts.

All photographic prints or color transparencies were sequentially numbered with printed title pages inserted into the sequence (black text on white paper) before the materials were photographed onto 35mm film for transfer to videodisc. Each videodisc was accompanied by a printed finding aid consisting of folder-level subject lists noting the image frame number or numbers associated with each subject.

Related Materials

Videodisc frame captures from this section of NASM Archival Videodisc 6, Side A, appear in Videodisc Imagery Collection, Videodisc 6A Frame Captures, NASM.XXXX.1000.4610. The finding aid for this related digital collection uses subject headings based on the original printed paper finding aid issued with the published videodisc.