Descriptive Entry

These records document the administration of contracts and grants received by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the United States Air Force, and the United States Navy. They include correspondence and memoranda with contracting agencies, Smithsonian Institution officials, project personnel, and subcontractors; progress and final reports; technical reports and information on instrumentation; contracts, amendments, and revisions; budgets, financial reports, and other fiscal records; and property inventories and audits. The records provide information on SAO research projects in planetary sciences, theoretical astrophysics, high-energy astrophysics, radio astronomy, solar and stellar physics, atomic and molecular processes, geoastronomy, and optical and infrared astronomy.