National Aeronautics and Space Administration | US Space Agency & Exploration Achievements | Britannica (original) (raw)

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), independent U.S. governmental agency established in 1958 for the research and development of vehicles and activities for the exploration of space within and outside Earth’s atmosphere.

The organization is composed of four mission directorates: Aeronautics Research, for the development of advanced aviation technologies; Science, dealing with programs for understanding the origin, structure, and evolution of the universe, the solar system, and Earth; Space Technology, for the development of space science and exploration technologies; and Human Exploration and Operations, concerning the management of crewed space missions, including those to the International Space Station, as well as operations related to launch services, space transportation, and space communications for both crewed and robotic exploration programs. A number of additional research centres are affiliated, including the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California; the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas; and the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Headquarters of NASA are in Washington, D.C.

NASA was created largely in response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik in 1957. It was organized around the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which had been created by Congress in 1915. NASA’s organization was well under way by the early years of Pres. John F. Kennedy’s administration when he proposed that the United States put a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. To that end, the Apollo program was designed, and in 1969 the U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person on the Moon. All told, during nine Apollo missions, 24 astronauts (all Americans) went to the Moon, and 12 of them walked on it. Later, uncrewed programs—such as Viking, Mariner, Voyager, and Galileo—explored other bodies of the solar system.

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space shuttle liftoffLiftoff of the first U.S. space shuttle, April 12, 1981, from John F. Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida.

NASA was also responsible for the development and launching of a number of satellites with Earth applications, such as Landsat, a series of satellites designed to collect information on natural resources and other Earth features; communications satellites; and weather satellites. It also planned and developed the space shuttle, a reusable vehicle capable of carrying out missions that could not be conducted with conventional spacecraft.

As part of the Artemis space program, launched in 2017, NASA aims to return humans to the Moon by 2025, with the goal of establishing a sustainable presence there and on other planets. The program also seeks to land the first woman and first person of colour on the Moon, and that woman may be Jessica Meir.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Erik Gregersen.