National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency within the government of the United States, having a mission to pioneer future space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research. It is led by an administrator who is appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and within Congress the agency reports to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and to the House Committee on Science and Technology. NASA's accomplishments are often in the news; the agency distributes extensive information about its activities to the media and other audiences via its Web site, including press kits and fact sheets; it operates its own cable television channel, NASA TV, in some markets; and it broadcasts NASA news on the full range of new media technologies, from podcasts to Twitter.

Following World War II, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) began a serious push into the fields of rocketry and upper stratosphere science. Aircraft research was performed both by DoD and by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Largely due to Soviet space successes such as the Sputnik satellite, President Dwight D. Eisenhower called for a renewed focus on space science. The first successful space missions, launches of suborbital satellites of the Jupiter series, were by the DoD. Suborbital satellite Jupiter C RS-40, which was launched on August 8, 1957, provided the first nose cone ever to be recovered following entry into space. On January 31, 1958, suborbital satellite Jupiter C RS-29 was launched containing the Explorer I payload; the first scientific experiment in space, it measured radiation. The architect of the Explorer I payload was Professor James Van Allen of the University of Iowa, and the Van Allen Radiation Belt was named in his honor.

President Eisenhower, in calling for orbital satellite research, mandated that this effort be undertaken by a civilian, rather than a military, organization. On October 1, 1958, following the passage of the National Aeronautics and Space Act, NASA absorbed NACA with its 8,000 employees, [Page 499]$100 million budget, and 3 major research facilities and added space exploration to its aeronautics research portfolio. The NASA research enterprise has grown from 3 to 10 research facilities and to an annual budget over $17 billion.

While continuing a focus on aeronautics, NASA has had a rich history in space exploration, including human spaceflight, missions to the moon and planets, the use of satellites for Earth observation by remote sensing, and gravitational science. To facilitate this distributed research portfolio, NASA has four “mission directorates” (in aeronautics research, science, space operations, and exploration systems) that manage a number of research laboratory facilities scattered throughout the United States.

President John F. Kennedy, based on a suggestion made by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, announced the intention for the United States to land a man on the moon and to reclaim from the Soviets superiority in space research. Project Mercury was the first high-profile human spaceflight program and was designed to learn if humans could withstand the space environment. This program utilized three different rocket systems. Little Joe and Redstone rockets provided initial testing, including suborbital flights with chimpanzees. Manned flights utilized the Atlas rocket booster. On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American in space on a 15-minute suborbital flight, and John H. Glenn Jr. was the first American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962.

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