- Year
- 1976–1977
- By
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (multiple offices)
- Section
- Space Shuttle & Beyond
- Shelf
- Box 3
- Catalog
- Catalog F · NASA Missions
A working file assembled around one goal: getting a small self-contained experiment flown on the Space Shuttle.
The core is a three-ring “Space Transportation System User Handbook” binder, dated June 1977, retaining curated excerpts on Spacelab payloads, cargo integration, and, at length, the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF).
Tucked in a folder pocket are two further NASA publications on the same theme: “Space Transportation System — Small Self-Contained Payload Program” (September 1977), which coins the “Getaway Special” name for a program NASA itself calls “still being formulated” — a 200-lb/5-cubic-foot size limit, a $500 deposit, $3,000–$10,000 pricing, and named Headquarters contacts — loose with a photocopied page from the underlying reimbursement directive, NMI 8610.8; and “Long Duration Exposure Facility: Guide for Experiment Accommodations” (Revision A, May 1976, Langley Research Center), describing LDEF’s twelve-sided frame and targeting a 1979 first flight it would not actually make until 1984, bound with a blank experiment-proposal form.
