Pass, STS-51, Discovery-ORFEUS, NASA Causeway

This vehicle permit pass allowed the bearer to drive onto the NASA causeway (a raised highway over the water) for the launch of the space shuttle Discovery, STS-51, in September 1993. The Space Shuttle Program saw the launch of 135 space shuttle orbiters. For the thousands of employees working as part of the Space Shuttle Program, these launches offered the opportunity to witness firsthand, and participate in the cultural phenomenon that these events became.

The pass belonged to Dennis Jenkins, a consulting aerospace engineer for the Space Shuttle Program, and author of Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System, a definitive book detailing the development and first 100 flights of the space shuttles. Jenkins donated the vehicle permit pass to the National Air and Space Museum in September 2011.