JSC Oral History Project

Established in 1996, the goal of the NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project (JSC OHP) is to capture history from the individuals who first provided the country and the world with an avenue to space and the moon. Participants include managers, engineers, technicians, doctors, astronauts, and other employees of NASA and aerospace contractors who served in key roles during the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle programs.

These oral histories ensure that the words of these pioneers live on to tell future generations about the excitement and lessons of space exploration.

Oral history interviews began in the summer of 1997, and since that time more than 1001 individuals have participated in the NASA Oral History projects in more than 1,299 oral history sessions.

JSC History Office



Oral History Project Brochure

There are three ways to view the names of the various Oral History Project participants:

Browse the list of participants in alphabetical order

(only names of participants with released and archived oral histories are on this list, and it includes a brief job title and/or Oral History Project title)

Browse the complete list of participants

(all participant names are separated into groups by relevant Oral History Project titles, and individual job title information is not listed)

Alphabetical drop-down list of participants

(direct links to Oral History Project group pages, and includes brief job title descriptions)

To view the newest additions to the JSC History Collection, visit the "What's New" announcement.

Oral History Projects include:

The International Space Station Oral History Project includes interviews with individuals who have contributed significantly to the success of the ISS Program. The oral history sessions reflect experiences and insight on topics such as the early days of the multi-national partnership, the development of its science program, and the challenges encountered in establishing the orbiting laboratory. The interviews were conducted by the JSC History Office between July and September, 2015, in Houston, Texas.

From 2006 to 2013, the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program administered by the Commercial Crew & Cargo Program Office (C3PO) at the Johnson Space Center endeavored to stimulate U.S. commercial space transportation capabilities by pursuing a new way of doing business with industry. Oral history interviews were conducted with many of the individuals who contributed to the success of the COTS program.

The STS Recordation Oral History Project involves the collection of history from key individuals formerly and currently associated with the agency’s Space Shuttle Program (SSP), focusing on the Space Shuttle Orbiter and its related components. These interviews include information on a number of Space Shuttle Program aspects from concept development to retirement, and focus on design, hardware evolution, and changes in response to the two Space Shuttle accidents.

In addition, the JSC Space Shuttle Program Tacit Knowledge Capture Project was commissioned by the JSC Chief Knowledge Officer and the Space Shuttle Program Manager, and includes twenty interviews with current and former key members of the Space Shuttle Program.

In conjunction with the NASA JSC Oral History Project, oral history sessions were conducted for the NASA Headquarters History Office: Administrators; NACA; Herstory; Earth System Science; Aviatrix Pioneers; Ballistic Missile Development Pioneers; NASA at 50.

Also an Oral History Project was conducted to capture the experiences from those individuals involved with the Shuttle-Mir Program (ISS Phase 1).

The audio recordings are located at The University of Houston - Clear Lake in the JSC History Collection.

The transcripts have been exported to individual Adobe Acrobat PDF files for easy searching and viewing. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these files.

Signed releases from the participants are located in the JSC History Collection.

The audio documentary, Apollo 8: Earth's Rise to a New Era, features excerpts of oral histories combined with a narration to present a unique perspective on a venture that resulted in humankind's first voyage to another celestial body.



The transcripts are available from the alphabetical list below, the complete list of participants (by project), or the complete list of participants listed alphabetically (not separated by project).



Please note: Links on the following pages are active once the Oral History transcript is archived in the JSC History Collection.

To view the newest additions to the JSC History Collection, visit the "What's New" announcement.

Visit the Significant Milestones in History page!

Transcript lists were last updated: Jan. 31, 2020