Ten field centers and a variety of installations conduct the day-to-day work, in laboratories, on air fields, in wind tunnels and in control rooms. NASA Headquarters, in Washington, provides overall guidance and direction to the agency, under the leadership of the Administrator. Throughout its history, NASA has conducted or funded research that has led to numerous improvements to life here on Earth. NASA's aeronautics teams are focused on improved aircraft travel that is safer and cleaner. The Terra and Aqua satellites are flagships of a different fleet, this one in Earth orbit, designed to help us understand how our home world is changing. In 1997, Mars Pathfinder became the first in a fleet of spacecraft that will explore Mars in the next decade, as we try to determine if life ever existed there. NASA also has continued its scientific research. In 2000, the United States and Russia established permanent human presence in space aboard the International Space Station, a multinational project representing the work of 16 nations. First launched in 1981, the space shuttle flew more than 130 successful flights before retiring in 2011. It also conducted purely scientific research and worked on developing applications for space technology, combining both pursuits in developing the first weather and communications satellites.Īfter Apollo, NASA focused on creating a reusable ship to provide regular access to space: the space shuttle. Meanwhile, NASA was continuing the aeronautics research pioneered by NACA. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first of 12 men to walk on the moon, meeting Kennedy's challenge. Through the Mercury and Gemini projects, NASA developed the technology and skills it needed for the journey. Kennedy focused NASA and the nation on sending astronauts to the moon by the end of the 1960s.
NASA grew out of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA), which had been researching flight technology for more than 40 years.
Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958, partially in response to the Soviet Union's launch of the first artificial satellite the previous year. What's out there in space? How do we get there? What will we find? What can we learn there, or learn just by trying to get there, that will make life better here on Earth? To do that, thousands of people have been working around the world - and off of it - for 50 years, trying to answer some basic questions. NASA's vision: To reach for new heights and reveal the unknown so that what we do and learn will benefit all humankind.
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