In the Shadow of the Moon: People of the American Space Program
Created In association with the History Department at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State), the film tells the story of the space program though extensive use of oral history interviews. © Chris Elley Productions 2000. This film is available for streaming courtesy of Chris Elley, 2019.
https://txst.yuja.com/V/Video?v=5480633&node=24169299&a=176726087&autoplay=1
Conditions Governing Access
Open to researchers without restriction.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright is retained by NASA. Audio content is not yet digitized.
Historical note
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) began the JSC (Johnson Space Center) Oral History Project in 1996 in an effort to document the experiences of everyone involved in the American quest for the moon. In 1999, NASA entered into a cooperative effort with Southwest Texas State University to interview NASA retirees living in the Texas Hill Country. Interviewees were chosen based on proximity to San Marcos.
During the three years of the project, Texas State Graduate students conducted approximately sixty interviews with NASA retirees. Most of the interviewees were engineers, but there were also doctors, lawyers, accountants and administrative personnel interviewed. While each interview was unique, the students were working from a set of common questions. The questions covered topics including the interviewees’ perception of the space race, the long work hours maintained during the major projects, the changes in the Clear Lake (Houston, Texas) area resulting from the population influx caused by the Gemini and Apollo programs and the interviewees’ thoughts on the future of the space program.
For three semesters, graduate students in Dr. Ron Brown’s Oral History class conducted these interviews. Each interview was approximately one hour long and was recorded on audio cassette. The students then transcribed the interviews, following guidelines provided by NASA. Copies of the audio were transferred to compact disc. During the 1999 session, some of the interviews were also recorded on video by SWT Mass Communication graduate student Christopher Elley. Copies of the video are included in the project material.