Correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes of meetings, appointment books, family and genealogical papers, and printed matter chiefly relating to Paine's engineering career with General Electric Company and Northrop Corporation and as deputy and acting administrator at NASA, where he directed seven Apollo missions, including the first to the moon. Also includes a journal (1945) kept by Paine while serving in the U.S. Navy describing the demilitarization of Japanese submarines during the early days of the Allied occupation of Japan; and material relating to Paine's service as chairman of the National Commission on Space and as a member of the Advisory Committee on the Future of the United States Space Program and Engineers Joint Council. Paine's interest in interplanetary exploration and colonization is documented by papers relating to the Case for Mars conferences and drafts of books and screenplays by others on outer space exploration. Correspondents include Buzz Aldrin, Ray Bradbury, John Glenn, J. Herbert Holloman, Thomas V. Jones, and Robert C. Seamans.