Bay Area Citizen - News
NASA then to now
By NEESHA HOSEIN
Since the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s inception in 1958, it has made its mark in the world with immeasurable accomplishments in science, technology and space exploration.
The Congress and the President of the United States created NASA, with the preamble, “An Act to provide for research into the problems of flight within and outside the Earth's atmosphere, and for other purposes.”
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was a U.S. federal agency whose mission was to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research.
NACA was founded on March 3, 1915, and dissolved on October 1, 1958, and its assets and personnel transferred to what became NASA.
Only months after its inception, NASA began conducting space missions and, within the first 20 years, numerous major programs.
On January 31, 1958, Explorer I, weighing only 18 pounds, became the first spacecraft launched into Earth’s orbit by theUnited States.
The satellite was launched by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, andExplorer I is credited for the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts around the Earth.
Project Mercury was a single astronaut program with flights from 1961-1963. It was NASA's first high profile program in an effort to learn if humans could survive in space.
On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American to fly into space on that mission and John H. Glenn Jr. became the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962.
Next came Project Gemini, 1965-1966, which followed behind Mercury's successes and used a spacecraft built to fit two astronauts.
During Gemini 4, on June 3, 1965, Edward H. White, Jr., became the first U.S. astronaut to conduct a spacewalk.
NASA extended its arm beyond Earth’s atmosphere to the moon with the Apollo Project. The Apollo 11 mission first put humans on the lunar surface.
The Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz Test Projects carried out in the early and mid-1970s. NASA resumed its human space flight efforts in 1981, with the Space Shuttle program that continues to the present day to help construct the International Space Station.
Other NASA programs include: X-15 hypersonic flight, lifting body flight research, avionics and electronics studies, propulsion technologies, structures research and aerodynamics investigations.
Remote-sensing Earth satellites for information gathering, specifically the Landsat satellites for environmental monitoring
NASA continues to conduct several types of specialized aeronautics research on aerodynamics, wind shear, and other important topics using wind tunnels, flight testing, and computer simulations.
Scientific probes such as the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft, launched by NASA, have explored the planets, the moon and other corners of the solar system.
Significant astronomical discoveries came about with the launch of Hubble Space Telescope, which photographs the distant galaxies and stars. The Viking and Mars Pathfinder investigated the surface of the Red Planet.
One of NASA’s future endeavors is to create a permanence for human existance in outer space.
The core mission of any future space exploration will be humanity's departure from Earth orbit and journeying to the Moon or Mars, this time for extended and perhaps permanent stays. Information from NASA documents.
The Congress and the President of the United States created NASA, with the preamble, “An Act to provide for research into the problems of flight within and outside the Earth's atmosphere, and for other purposes.”
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was a U.S. federal agency whose mission was to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research.
NACA was founded on March 3, 1915, and dissolved on October 1, 1958, and its assets and personnel transferred to what became NASA.
Only months after its inception, NASA began conducting space missions and, within the first 20 years, numerous major programs.
On January 31, 1958, Explorer I, weighing only 18 pounds, became the first spacecraft launched into Earth’s orbit by theUnited States.
The satellite was launched by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, andExplorer I is credited for the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts around the Earth.
Project Mercury was a single astronaut program with flights from 1961-1963. It was NASA's first high profile program in an effort to learn if humans could survive in space.
On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American to fly into space on that mission and John H. Glenn Jr. became the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962.
Next came Project Gemini, 1965-1966, which followed behind Mercury's successes and used a spacecraft built to fit two astronauts.
During Gemini 4, on June 3, 1965, Edward H. White, Jr., became the first U.S. astronaut to conduct a spacewalk.
NASA extended its arm beyond Earth’s atmosphere to the moon with the Apollo Project. The Apollo 11 mission first put humans on the lunar surface.
The Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz Test Projects carried out in the early and mid-1970s. NASA resumed its human space flight efforts in 1981, with the Space Shuttle program that continues to the present day to help construct the International Space Station.
Other NASA programs include: X-15 hypersonic flight, lifting body flight research, avionics and electronics studies, propulsion technologies, structures research and aerodynamics investigations.
Remote-sensing Earth satellites for information gathering, specifically the Landsat satellites for environmental monitoring
NASA continues to conduct several types of specialized aeronautics research on aerodynamics, wind shear, and other important topics using wind tunnels, flight testing, and computer simulations.
Scientific probes such as the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft, launched by NASA, have explored the planets, the moon and other corners of the solar system.
Significant astronomical discoveries came about with the launch of Hubble Space Telescope, which photographs the distant galaxies and stars. The Viking and Mars Pathfinder investigated the surface of the Red Planet.
One of NASA’s future endeavors is to create a permanence for human existance in outer space.
The core mission of any future space exploration will be humanity's departure from Earth orbit and journeying to the Moon or Mars, this time for extended and perhaps permanent stays. Information from NASA documents.
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