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Lately I'm unable to find documents on NTRS that used to be available. Example:

"F-1 Rocket Engine Operating Instructions" used to be available. It is referenced on this page on heroicrelics.org with URL: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?N=0&Ntk=all&Ntx=mode%20matchall&Ntt=19750070175. This now gives a "Page not found" error.

In this answer user jumpjack mentions that some links have changed:

I also found this forum post listing all "Apollo experience reports" available on NTRS site, but beware that all links are broken due to server change; anyware the documents numbers are still valid.

For example, this link is invalid:

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19760019157_1976019157.pdf

You must convert it to:

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19760019157/downloads/19760019157.pdf

However, that last link also doesn't work any more. In fact, many links in that post, which is very recent, from 21 January 2022, are broken now.

Some documents can be found elsewhere, e.g. ibiblio.org or archive.org, but that mileage varies a lot.

Anyone have a clue of what's going on? Do we need to start an ibiblio.org or archive.org project?

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    $\begingroup$ This was a fairly recent change (last couple of years anyway) and I find it very annoying. $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Mar 22, 2022 at 14:04
  • $\begingroup$ I'd like to find all the R-3896 documents. Perhaps I'll ask a question about it. I saw a collection for sale on ebay :( $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Mar 22, 2022 at 14:19
  • $\begingroup$ @OrganicMarble Yeah, I saw that too. Still stuck on the F-1 tuning question, eh? ;-). The document that called2voyage found is enormous. I can't even open it - my computer loads only the first 50 pages or so. $\endgroup$
    – Ludo
    Commented Mar 22, 2022 at 14:22
  • $\begingroup$ I did manage to get that one, its over 400 pages and took forever to download from the wayback machine. I think the parts list is in R-3896-4 which I can't find anywhere. I did find an R-3896 "intro" which explained the different documents. $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Mar 22, 2022 at 15:01
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    $\begingroup$ space.stackexchange.com/q/58652/6944 $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Mar 22, 2022 at 15:09
  • $\begingroup$ The last link ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19760019157/downloads/… works for me $\endgroup$
    – BrendanLuke15
    Commented Mar 22, 2022 at 15:52
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    $\begingroup$ @BrendanLuke15 Really? I get a blank page with {"statusCode":500,"message":"Internal server error"} $\endgroup$
    – Ludo
    Commented Mar 22, 2022 at 15:53
  • $\begingroup$ Is this a new occurrence? perhaps its transitory $\endgroup$
    – BrendanLuke15
    Commented Mar 22, 2022 at 15:59
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    $\begingroup$ @BrendanLuke15 it's been like this for me since a couple of days. Sometimes with other links I get code 404 on a similarly blank page (instead of a nicely formatted one). This particular case may be temporary, but the fact still is that a lot of documents have been removed entirely. Or at least don't show up with queries and/or direct links. $\endgroup$
    – Ludo
    Commented Mar 22, 2022 at 16:03
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    $\begingroup$ @BrendanLuke15 that particular one worked for me as well, but a LOT of documents have been removed recently, even from the Shuttle era. The last one I noticed was the shuttle EVA tools catalog. Fortunately I had already uploaded it to the internet archive in anticipation :) $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Mar 22, 2022 at 17:42
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    $\begingroup$ @OrganicMarble any recommendations with regard to uploading documents to archive.org? There seems to be a NASA Apollo documentation project, but it's unclear if anyone can just dumps stuff there. $\endgroup$
    – Ludo
    Commented Mar 23, 2022 at 9:32
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    $\begingroup$ @Ludo I learned that i.a. lets you do that from a question here! space.meta.stackexchange.com/q/1046/6944 I've just been uploading to my own "library", it seems that anyone can access it, at least from links I've used as references here. But I am not a sophisticated i.a. user by any means, I often get lost trying to find stuff there. $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Mar 23, 2022 at 13:30

1 Answer 1

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In many cases they are probably already backed up to archive.org. Your example links are:

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  • $\begingroup$ What query did you use to find that? $\endgroup$
    – Ludo
    Commented Mar 22, 2022 at 13:23
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    $\begingroup$ The second one was simple. I just put the URL into archive.org and it came up. The first one was harder. I had to google the document number. I found another site that hosted it, which unfortunately was also down but thankfully was backed up in archive.org. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Mar 22, 2022 at 13:25
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    $\begingroup$ Many thanks for finding the F-1 document, I've been looking for ages. I guess my Google fu took a dive. But still a shame that NTRS doesn't have them anymore, because finding stuff now becomes a lot harder. $\endgroup$
    – Ludo
    Commented Mar 22, 2022 at 13:30
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    $\begingroup$ For sure, one of the more frustrating things about historical reference material. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Mar 22, 2022 at 13:31
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    $\begingroup$ There is a lesson to be learned here. When you run across an interesting document, go to archive.org and create a link to the document. Websites change. The archive keeps track of that older stuff. $\endgroup$
    – David Hammen
    Commented Apr 16, 2022 at 9:20

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