NASA

Background

Since 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has brought the mysteries of the cosmos down to Earth, inspiring millions across the world to set their eyes on the final frontier. 

Its pioneering lunar missions, scientific discoveries, space-based observatories, and more have established it as the world’s leading-edge space program (see timeline).

Origins

In the mid-1950s, the US and Soviet Union sought to develop rockets powerful enough to launch satellites into low-Earth orbit, inaugurating the two-decade Space Race.

President Dwight Eisenhower signed a law establishing NASA in 1958 that consolidated several established programs. The new agency streamlined US civilian efforts following the Soviet Union's launch of the world’s first artificial satellite via an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The Space Race

As the Soviets charged ahead—launching a dog, then a scientific satellite, and finally a man into orbit—the US responded with Explorer 1, a satellite that discovered Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced expansive plans to land a man on the moon by 1970. His iconic speech at Houston’s Rice University helped unite the nation behind the burgeoning space program. An estimated 5% of the US workforce contributed to the Apollo program. 

Many Greco-Roman mythology-based programs were inaugurated to achieve key milestones: Saturn developed the rockets used for launch, Mercury and Gemini launched Americans into orbit, and Apollo landed men on the moon.

The Space Race officially ended in 1975 when a US Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soviet Soyuz and the two commanders shook hands. 

Space Exploration

Building off the Mariner program’s probes to study Venus, Mars, and Mercury, NASA sent Voyager 1 and 2 in the late 1970s to capture photographs of the outer gas and ice giants. They still operate today beyond the heliosphere, the region affected by our sun’s solar winds.

To reduce launch costs in the 1980s, NASA produced five partially reusable space shuttles. They conducted over 130 missions to launch satellites, deliver modules to orbital stations, and conduct experiments. The program was struck by tragic midflight explosions in 1986 and 2003, killing 14 astronauts. 

In the 1990s, NASA, in coordination with Russia, Japan, Canada, and Europe, built the modular International Space Station in low-Earth orbit to conduct space experiments. The station has been continuously inhabited for over two decades by nearly 300 people.

To observe the cosmos, NASA has launched several space-based observatories to peer into deep space using high-tech radiation-sensing tools. The most famous of these—the Hubble and the James Webb space telescopes—have captured some of the world’s most iconic space images.

Artemis

NASA’s next big project aims to return a more diverse cast of humans to the moon via the Orion spacecraft atop the massive Space Launch System. The agency plans to explore more of the lunar surface and build the first permanent human habitation there before moving onto Mars.