51D-05-22 (12-19 April 1985) --- Astronauts Karol J. Bobko (foreground), mission commander, and Donald E. Williams, pilot, are surrounded by teleprinted messages transmitted from ground controllers. The two are on Discovery's middeck.

51F-03-024 (29 July-6 Aug 1985) --- Astronauts Anthony W. England, left, and Roy D. Bridges are surrounded by some of the prolific teleprinter copy transmitted from ground controllers to the Earth-orbiting Challenger. Eventually the equivalent of several football fields' length of paper was filled with data from flight controllers.

SL3-111-1514 (July-September 1973) --- Astronaut Alan L. Bean, Skylab 3 commander, reads data from book in his right hand while holding teleprinter tape in his left hand, in the ward room of the Skylab space station's Orbital Workshop (OWS) crew quarters. This photograph was taken with a 35mm Nikon camera held by one of Bean's fellow crewmen during the 56.5 day second manned Skylab mission in Earth orbit. Photo credit: NASA

STS004-26-243 (27 June 1982) --- Astronaut Henry W. Hartsfield Jr., STS-4 pilot, has just torn off a rather prolific gathering of hard copy print-outs from the teleprinter aboard the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Columbia during NASA?s fourth orbital flight test. The teleprinter is located in the middeck area of the reusable spacecraft. The photograph was made by astronaut Thomas K. Mattingly II, STS-4 commander. The two shared a little more than seven days of duties aboard the space shuttle Columbia. Photo credit: NASA

STS059-05-007 (9-20 April 1994) --- On Endeavour's middeck, the three STS-59 red shift crew members begin to organize what was believed to be among the longest mail messages in recent Shuttle history. With the picture held vertically, astronaut Sidney M. Gutierrez, mission commander, is in upper right. Also seen are astronauts Linda M. Godwin, payload commander, and Kevin P. Chilton, pilot. Though early Shuttle flights could brag of longer teleprinted messages, this Thermal Imaging Printing System's (TIPS) message from the ground competes with those of recent Shuttle flights.

STS045-02-020 (24 March-2 April 1992) --- Brian Duffy, STS-45 pilot, struggles with a large volume of data printouts from the teleprinter system. He is seated at the commander's station on the flight deck of the Earth-orbiting Atlantis during the nine-day mission. This frame was taken with a 35mm camera.

STS026-06-033 (5 Oct 1988) --- Astronaut David C. Hilmers, STS-26 mission specialist, reads teleprinted message which has been clipped to stowage locker doors on the middeck. Food, a galley and various experiments surround the mission specialist.

41B-07-230 (S84-27027) (3-11 February 1984) ---Astronaut Robert L. Gibson, 41-B pilot, reviews some teleprinter copy on the flight deck?s starboard station during the eight-day 41-B Space Shuttle mission. Four other astronauts share the Challenger with Gibson. They are Astronauts Vance D. Brand, commander; and Ronald E. McNair, Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart, all mission specialists. The photograph was taken from the commander?s station with a 35mm camera.

S84-27027 (3-11 Feb 1984) --- Astronaut Robert L. Gibson, STS-41B pilot, reviews some teleprinter copy on the flight deck's starboard station during the eight-day STS-41B Space Shuttle mission. Four other astronauts share the Challenger with Gibson. They are astronauts Vance D. Brand, commander; and Ronald E. McNair, Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart, all mission specialists. The photograph was taken from the commander's station with a 35mm camera.

STS040-17-003 (5-14 June 1991) --- Astronauts Rhea Seddon and Bryan D. O'Connor share a 15 ft. length of teleprinter messages aboard Columbia. During the nine-day Spacelab Life Sciences (SLS-1) mission, the STS-40 crewmembers received a large volume of similar print-outs from ground controllers. Using foot restraints, the two obviously expect their perusing to take awhile. This middeck scene was photographed with a 35mm camera.

STS002-02-865 (12-14 Nov. 1981) --- Astronaut Richard H. Truly, STS-2 pilot, peruses some teleprinter copy, floating partially about the middeck area of NASA’s space shuttle Columbia during one of 1,813 minutes of activity of STS-2. This photograph was recorded with 35mm camera in the hands of astronaut Joe H. Engle, STS-2 crew commander. Truly communicates with spacecraft communicators on the ground. Photo credit: NASA

STS060-25-016 (6 Feb. 1994) --- On space shuttle Discovery?s aft flight deck, astronaut Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, STS-60 payload commander, begins to organize what was believed to be among the longest mail messages in shuttle history. Though early shuttle flights could brag of longer teleprinted messages, the Thermal Imaging Printing System?s day four correspondence, most of which is out of frame here, is record length for recent flights. Chang-Diaz joined four other NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut for eight days aboard Discovery. Photo credit: NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration

S75-21432 (March 1975) --- An artist's concept illustrating a scene during the June 7, 1973 Skylab 2 extravehicular activity in Earth orbit when astronauts Joseph P. Kerwin (larger figure) and Charles Conrad Jr. cut the aluminum strapping which prevented the Skylab Orbital Workshop solar array system wing from deploying. The solar panel was successfully deployed. The painting is by artist Paul Fjeld. The action portrayed here is about two to four seconds after using the beam erection tether, the two crewmen broke the frozen SAS beam actuators. This artistic effort took weeks to research and a day and a half to paint. Fjeld said that he needed some hundred or so photographs to get all the details for the painting. He struggled through about 300 pages of transcripts from the flight. Also, he used several pages of teleprinter messages which were the actual instructions on the EVA that the two astronauts used in flight. Photo credit: NASA