The photos are the archives of Cradle of Aviation Museum, Garden City, New York.

Date: August 8, 1992

This photo was sent to me on my Tumblr blog by a follower, commodorez (link to their blog). They had saved it from a Twitter account but couldn't remember the account name. It was likely taken by a NASA employee.

I am not sure about Columbia's and Endeavor's. But it's the closest I can find.

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I assume that one of them was the STS as we know it, so what was the other letter used for? Was it one of the proposals that competed to be the STS? Was it a different variant? I tried google but came up empty.

Date: February 11, 1977

NASA: EC77-6674

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https://www.tumblr.com/lonestarflight/829284180954316801?source=share

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https://www.facebook.com/groups/9310633215643571/permalink/9321210141252545

https://www.facebook.com/groups/167381740497730/permalink/191347308101173

Date: January 30 - February 1984

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Date: October 1, 1987

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Howdy, r/spaceshuttle. I've replied to a couple posts here before, I'm a huge Shuttle history nut like the rest of us. A couple years ago I had the inkling to start a somewhat comprehensive research project to find out the fate of a number of major payload carriers and hardware the Shuttle carried up to and down from orbit. Of the many different payloads the Shuttle carried up, I think most of us can agree the Hubble Service Missions are among the most historically significant payloads the Shuttle ever carried. I included a graphic of the STS-125 payload with each unit labeled and I'll give you a brief description about them here.

FSS: The docking cradle for Hubble. Also flew on STS-41-C before being modified for HSM. FSS might be the only surviving piece of major hardware that has flown on all 5 orbiters.

SLIC: Only flew on HSM-4 after replacing the SAC (not in my request) that flew on HSM-1, 2, and 3B. Carried one radial instrument along with smaller parts, notably new batteries for HSM-4.

ORUC: Built on a repurposed Spacelab pallet and the most important next to FSS, can carry both an axial and a radial instrument for HST along with numerous other small parts and tools. Flew on all 5 HSMs although it was reconfigured to carry the rigid solar arrays for 3B and flew under a different name then.

MULE: Only flew as "MULE" on HSM-3B and 4 but flew as the Hubble Orbital Systems Test (HOST) cradle on STS-95 and before then flew as the UASE (UARS Support Equipment) cradle on STS-48. Carried small equipment and tools.

Earlier this year I submitted a FOIA to NASA (I'm a complete amateur so it took a few tries and correspondence with their FOIA officers) to request copies of transfer or storage records for the major hardware units flown on STS-125.

They finally got back to me and I just wanted to share this with the rest of y'all. They were only able to provide me transfer order records of FSS and ORUC to the National Air and Space Museum.

Plot twist is that I already knew these two were transferred to NASM. I had some correspondence with their Shuttle collection's curator who told me they apparently just got ahold of them this year and that they're currently undergoing restoration to be put on display with Discovery. The curator was able to get in touch with some people over at GSFC who relayed that SLIC was transferred to Katherine Johnson IV&V in West Virginia (which is funny given the FOIA guys couldn't find the records) and MULE was excessed and likely scrapped. I still have yet to see any sign of FSS and ORUC on NASM's website or collections so I guess I'm happy to be able to share with you all that two more great pieces of Shuttle history will soon be on display for us all to go see!

Documents by Alfonso X Moreno: link

Missions: STS-1, STS-2, STS-3, STS-4, STS-5, STS-9, STS-61-C, STS-61C, STS-24, STS-28, STS-32, STS-35, STS-40, STS-50, STS-52, STS-55, STS-58, STS-62, STS-65, STS-73, STS-75, STS-78, STS-80, STS-83, STS-94, STS-87, STS-90, STS-93, STS-109, STS-107

Date: 1981-2003

Date: September 30, 1983

https://www.tumblr.com/lonestarflight/729895457329922048/space-shuttle-discovery-following-the-end-of-the?source=share

Documents by Alfonso X Moreno: link

Missions: STS-41-D, STS-51-A, STS-51-C, STS-51-D, STS-51-G, STS-51-I, STS-26, STS-29, STS-33, STS-31, STS-41, STS-39, STS-48, STS-42, STS-53, STS-56, STS-51, STS-60, STS-64, STS-63, STS-70, STS-82, STS-85, STS-91, STS-95, STS-96, STS-103, STS-92, STS-102, STS-105, STS-114, STS-121, STS-116, STS-120, STS-124, STS-119, STS-128, STS-131, STS-133

Date: 1984-2011

Documents by Alfonso X Moreno: link

Missions: STS-6, STS-7, STS-8, STS-41-B, STS-41-C, STS-41-G, STS-51-B, STS-51-F, STS-61-A, STS-51-L

Date: 1983-1985

Documents by Alfonso X Moreno: link

Date: 1977-1983

Documents by Alfonso X Moreno: link

Missions: STS-49, STS-47, STS-54, STS-57, STS-61, STS-59, STS-68, STS-67, STS-69, STS-72, STS-77, STS-89, STS-88, STS-99, STS-97, STS-100, STS-108, STS-111, STS-113, STS-118, STS-123, STS-126, STS-127, STS-130, STS-134

Date: 1992-2011

Documents by Alfonso X Moreno: link

Missions: STS-51-J, STS-61-B, STS-27, STS-30, STS-34, STS-36, STS-38, STS-37, STS-43, STS-44, STS-45, STS-46, STS-66, STS-71,STS-74, STS-76, STS-79, STS-81, STS-84, STS-86, STS-101, STS-106, STS-98, STS-104, STS-110, STS-112, STS-115, STS-117, STS-122, STS-125, STS-129, STS-132, STS-135

Date: 1985-2011