Browse the STS-95 Sub-series collection
The STS-95 Sub-series consists of nine cubic feet of records and six oversized boxes of materials documenting John Glenn's return to space in 1998 as a crew member aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery Mission STS-95. Materials within the sub-series date from 1993 to 2000, though the bulk of the materials date from 1998 to 1999. Items within the sub-series are divided into the two major categories of working files and fan mail.
The six cubic feet of working files (boxes 75-80) consist of the briefing materials, mission and training manuals, personal files, newspaper clippings, publications, and trip files compiled and used by Glenn during his training for the STS-95 mission, during his time in space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, and during the events following the mission. Most of the briefing materials, mission manuals, and training manuals within the sub-series pertain to the training John Glenn underwent to become familiar with the operation of various onboard systems, equipment, and other aspects of the space shuttle. Other manuals contain information on procedures for shuttle launch, landing, and emergency situations, as well as information on mission rules, schedules, and flight plans. Additional manuals and briefing materials pertain to the experiments planned during the mission, with an emphasis on a variety of investigations into the relationship between space flight and the aging process. Also included are materials on the shuttle mission payloads, such as the Spartan solar-observing spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test Platform, and the SPACEHAB science module.
The personal files contain general information on the shuttle mission, biographical sketches of the mission's astronauts, and a variety of materials pertaining to John Glenn's personal involvement in the STS-95 mission. Included in the files are reports containing the results of the various medical experiments Glenn undertook during the mission. Other files consist of Glenn's speeches, news releases, press conferences, and articles. Additional files contain educational materials about Glenn's activities as a space shuttle astronaut and the Space Shuttle Discovery mission designed for schoolchildren. The personal files also include a number of correspondence files containing letters sent to Glenn prior to and after the space flight. Much of the correspondence is from the general public and consists of invitations, requests, and business offers. Other correspondence files contain congratulatory letters from VIPs, family members, and friends. Of special note is a copy of the e-mail message sent to Glenn by President William Clinton during the shuttle mission.
The newspaper clippings include chronological files of articles on Glenn's pre-flight training, space shuttle flight, and post-flight activities. The clippings date from January 1997 to May 1999 and include articles published by a variety of major domestic newspapers. Separate files contain articles published by newspapers in some foreign countries. Other clippings files contain editorials, cartoons, and articles from various Internet web sites. Another series of clippings, labeled Space Clips, contain articles on the STS-95 mission compiled by members of Glenn's senate office staff. This series dates from February 1998 and from October to December 1998. Complementing the newspaper clippings is a small number of NASA publications, including press kits on the STS-95 mission and informational materials on NASA in general.
The trip files contain correspondence, programs, schedules, and related materials on the pre-flight and post-flight activities of the Space Shuttle Discovery astronauts. Included is information on the ticker-tape parade held in New York City on November 16, 1998 honoring the Space Shuttle Discovery astronauts, along with files on the trips the shuttle crew took to Europe and Japan in January 1999. Other files contain materials on events honoring John Glenn prior to the shuttle mission, and on the trips he and his family made in 1998 to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The fan mail consists of three cubic feet of materials (boxes 81-83), along with six oversized boxes of postcards and scrapbooks (boxes 84-89), sent to John Glenn by the general public from 1997 to 2000. Contained within the first two boxes is a sampling of the tens of thousands of letters Glenn received from admirers across the country and around the world praising his determination to return to space at age seventy-seven. In processing this extensive amount of fan mail, it first was sorted into the categories of adult, children, foreign, poetry, and senior citizens. A random sampling then was done of each category, with one in ten letters kept for the collection. Letters within the collection are arranged alphabetically by category, with letters within each category arranged alphabetically by state or foreign country. An additional category, school class packets, contains packets of letters written by children in elementary school classes from around the country. These letters typically were bound together and sent to Glenn with a cover letter written by the class teacher. Ten percent of these school class packets, taken from a random sampling, are alphabetically arranged by state within the fan mail collection.
Included within the fan mail collection are three files and one oversized box containing printed copies of postcard submissions emailed to John Glenn by the general public. These email postcards were sent via the "Godspeed, John Glenn" link on the Spaceday.com Internet web site maintained by the Lockheed Martin Corporation from October 6 to November 9, 1998. Also located within the collection are twenty-four guest books dating from August 1998 to March 1999. These guest books contain inscriptions to John Glenn written by approximately 40,000 visitors to an exhibit commemorating Glenn's return to space displayed at the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in Titusville, Florida.
The fan mail also includes five oversized boxes (boxes 85-89) containing a sampling of the dozens of scrapbooks on the Space Shuttle Discovery space flight sent to John Glenn by elementary school classes. Similar in nature to the school class packets, these scrapbooks may also contain newspaper and magazine clippings and children's artwork, as well as letters written by school children.