When was nasa founded

But the greatest public excitement came with Glennan's formation of the first human exploration effort, Project Mercury. With the first selection of Mercury astronauts in , public fascination in space reached a fever pitch. They realized that a large booster rocket would be necessary for heavy payloads and an eventual Moon mission. This formed the basis for the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. This transfer reflected President Eisenhower's policy that civilian and military space programs should be separately managed, but work closely together.

He was their one avenue to possible fame in the space business. Keith Glennan. Then Russia, which had many years of experience in long-duration human spaceflight, such as with its Salyut and Mir space stations, joined with the U.

On January 14, , President George W. This Vision entails sending humans back to the Moon and on to Mars by eventually retiring the Shuttle and developing a new, multipurpose Crew Exploration Vehicle.

Robotic scientific exploration and technology development is also folded into this encompassing Vision. In particular, the s heralded the advent of a new generation of scientific spacecraft. Two similar spacecraft, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, launched on March 2, and April 5, , respectively, traveled to Jupiter and Saturn to study the composition of interplanetary space.

Voyagers 1 and 2, launched on September 5, and August 20, , respectively, conducted a "Grand Tour" of our solar system. In , the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit around the Earth. Unfortunately, NASA scientists soon discovered that a microscopic spherical aberration in the polishing of the Hubble's mirror significantly limited the instrument's observing power. During a previously scheduled servicing mission in December, , a team of astronauts performed a dramatic series of spacewalks to install a corrective optics package and other hardware.

The hardware functioned like a contact lens and the elegant solution worked perfectly to restore Hubble's capabilities. The servicing mission again demonstrated the unique ability of humans to work in space, enabled Hubble to make a number of important astronomical discoveries, and greatly restored public confidence in NASA. Several months before this first HST servicing mission, however, NASA suffered another major disappointment when the Mars Observer spacecraft disappeared on August 21, , just three days before it was to go into orbit around the red planet.

Mars Global Surveyor was the first of these spacecraft; it was launched on November 7, , and has been in a Martian orbit mapping Mars since Using some innovative technologies, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft landed on Mars on July 4, and explored the surface of the planet with its miniature rover, Sojourner. The Mars Pathfinder mission was a scientific and popular success, with the world following along via the Internet.

This success was followed by the landing of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers in January , to much scientific and popular acclaim. Over the years, NASA has continued to look for life beyond our planet. In , NASA launched the two Viking spacecraft to look for basic signs of life on Mars; the spacecraft arrived on Mars in but did not find any indications of past or present biological activity there. In a probe from the Galileo spacecraft that was examining Jupiter and its moon, Europa, revealed that Europa may contain ice or even liquid water, thought to be a key component in any life-sustaining environment.

NASA also has used radio astronomy to scan the heavens for potential signals from extraterrestrial intelligent life. It continues to investigate whether any Martian meteorites contain microbiological organisms and in the late s, organized an "Origins" program to search for life using powerful new telescopes and biological techniques. More recently scientists have found more and more evidence that water used to be present on Mars.

In the s, NASA's highly successful X program involved a rocket-powered airplane that flew above the atmosphere and then glided back to Earth unpowered. The X pilots helped researchers gain much useful information about supersonic aeronautics and the program also provided data for development of the Space Shuttle. The Dyna-Soar was a precursor to later similar efforts such as the National Aerospace Plane, on which NASA and other Government agencies and private companies did advanced hypersonics research in such areas as structures, materials, propulsion, and aerodynamics.

NASA has also done significant research on flight maneuverability on high speed aircraft that is often applicable to lower speed airplanes. NASA scientist Richard Whitcomb invented the "supercritical wing" that was specially shaped to delay and lessen the impact of shock waves on transonic military aircraft and had a significant impact on civil aircraft design.

More sophisticated DFBW systems were used on the X and X aircraft, which would have been uncontrollable otherwise. From to , NASA conducted a research program on "lifting bodies," aircraft without wings. This valuable research paved the way for the Shuttle to glide to a safe unpowered landing, as well as for the later X project, and for a prototype for a future crew return vehicle from the International Space Station.

In , the XA airplane used innovative scramjet technology to fly at ten times the speed of sound, setting a world's record for air-breathing aircraft. The first three Landsat satellites, launched in , , and , transmitted back to Earth complex data streams that could be converted into colored pictures. Landsat data has been used in a variety of practical commercial applications such as crop management and fault line detection, and to track many kinds of weather such as droughts, forest fires, and ice floes.

NASA has been involved in a variety of other Earth science efforts such as the Earth Observation System of spacecraft and data processing that have yielded important scientific results in such areas as tropical deforestation, global warming, and climate change. Conclusion Since its inception in , NASA has accomplished many great scientific and technological feats. NASA technology has been adapted for many non-aerospace uses by the private sector.

NASA remains a leading force in scientific research and in stimulating public interest in aerospace exploration, as well as science and technology in general. Perhaps more importantly, our exploration of space has taught us to view the Earth, ourselves, and the universe in a new way.

While the tremendous technical and scientific accomplishments of NASA demonstrate vividly that humans can achieve previously inconceivable feats, we also are humbled by the realization that Earth is just a tiny "blue marble" in the cosmos. For further reading: Roger E.

Captions 1. Edwin E. The Sputnik launch caught Americans by surprise and sparked fears that the Soviets might also be capable of sending missiles with nuclear weapons from Europe to America.

The United States prided itself on being at the forefront of technology, and, embarrassed, immediately began developing a response, signaling the start of the U. In December, America attempted to launch a satellite of its own, called Vanguard , but it exploded shortly after takeoff. On January 31, , things went better with Explorer I , the first U. In May , President John F. Kennedy declared that America should put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. NASA has continued to make great advances in space exploration since the first moonwalk, including playing a major part in the construction of the International Space Station.

The agency has also suffered tragic setbacks, however, such as the disasters that killed the crews of the Challenger space shuttle in and the Columbia space shuttle in But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Under Hitler, the Nazi Party grew into a mass movement and ruled Germany as a totalitarian state from to By the beginning of , The Doors were well-established members of the Los Angeles music scene.

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