Robert W. Smith compiled the Space Telescope Collection while writing his book The Space Telescope: A Study of NASA, Science, Technology and Politics. The book published in 1989, was one of the main goals of the Space Telescope History Project and was the result of the efforts of historians from Johns Hopkins University and the National Air and Space Museum. The project was partially funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation. The purpose of the project was to provide a history of the Space Telescope Project from its origins to the time when the telescope was placed in orbit. The project also developed a large body of historical resource files and oral history tapes. The oral histories and many of the files are housed at the National Air and Space Museum. This collection is a portion of these working resource files.

The Hubble Space Telescope was the product of collaboration between NASA and the U.S. government, private industry, and the academic world. For this reason the Space Telescope Science Institute was created to coordinate the effort. In April 1990, the completed Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit. The collection contains correspondence files, scientific plans, reports, publications, administrative records and subject files from various NASA centers, universities, research groups and contractors who were active in the development of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Space Telescope Science Institute. Because this record group is an artificial collection, the documents it contains have been gathered from a variety of sources. The records do not provide complete documentation of either the Space Telescope or the agencies who contributed to its development.