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Nasa

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has truly taken the Beatles song
"Across the Universe" to heart. The federal agency was founded in 1958 -- partly in
response to Russia's launch of the Sputnik satellite -- to research space and flight
technology and, in 1969, successfully landed two Americans on the moon. Today it
manages the space shuttle program; partners with several nations, including Russia, to
build and man the International Space Station; and does research and exploration via
unmanned satellites and probes (including the Mars Rovers and the Hubble Space
Telescope). NASA plans to retire the space shuttle program by 2010 and deliver man
back to the moon by 2020.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the unit of the federal
government charged with operating the nation's space exploration and aeronautics
programs. The administrator of NASA, an independent agency, is appointed by the
president, subject to Senate confirmation. NASA came into existence on 1 October 1958,
after Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, at the
recommendation of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Many Americans had been highly
alarmed when, on 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union put into orbit Sputnik, the first man-
made satellite. In the midst of the Cold War, Americans feared that the Soviets might
develop superior missile and space technology and use it against the United States. The
new agency absorbed the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a poorly funded
research agency formed in 1915.

Even though much of NASA's early political support stemmed from America's Cold War
competition with the Soviet Union, NASA was designed as an explicitly civilian agency
to pursue peaceful space activities. Overseeing the military applications of space
technology was left to the Department of Defense. In practice, however, the distinction
has sometimes blurred. From the beginning, NASA and the military have cooperated in a
variety of ways, and many astronauts have come from military backgrounds.

Projects Mercury and Gemini

NASA designed its first major program, Project Mercury, to study human abilities in
space and to develop the technology required for manned space exploration. The program
and the original seven astronauts received tremendous public attention, and the astronauts
became national heroes. One of those seven, Alan Shepard, became the first American in
space with his suborbital flight on 5 May 1961. On 20 February 1962, John Glenn
became the first American to orbit the earth (Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin was the
first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth, on 12 April 1961).
President John F. Kennedy congratulated the astronauts and NASA but said that the
nation needed "a substantially larger effort" in space. Speaking to Congress on 25 May
1961, Kennedy declared what that effort should be: "I believe that this nation should
commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the
moon and returning him safely to the Earth." Kennedy admitted that the lunar program
would be expensive and risky, but the public came to support it enthusiastically. Congress
approved the program—called Project Apollo—with very little debate. Apollo became
the most expensive civilian project in American history.

Kennedy's dramatic goal exhilarated NASA. Under the skillful leadership of


administrator James Webb, NASA set out to achieve the goal. The Mercury flights (a total
of six from 1961 to 1963) and the subsequent Project Gemini (ten flights from 1965 to
1966) served as preliminary steps to going to the moon. The larger and more advanced
Gemini spacecraft allowed astronauts to practice maneuvers that would be essential in the
Apollo program.

Project Apollo

Ironically, as NASA worked toward fulfilling its exciting goal, public support for the
agency began to decline. After it became clear that the United States was not really losing
the "space race" to the Soviet Union, many Americans wondered whether the lunar
program was worth its cost. Then, on 27 January 1967, three astronauts conducting tests
inside a sealed Apollo capsule died when a fire broke out in the spacecraft. A review
board found that NASA had not paid adequate attention to safety.

After several unmanned Apollo test flights and one manned mission that orbited the
Earth, NASA was ready to send a spacecraft into lunar orbit. Circling the moon on
Christmas Eve, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 beamed back to Earth spectacular pictures of
the moon's surface. NASA

sent two more test flights into lunar orbit and was then ready to land on the moon. Apollo
11 lifted off on 16 July 1969 and landed on the moon four days later. As much of the
world watched televised coverage in awe, Neil Armstrong became the first human to
walk on the moon. Just after he stepped from his spacecraft onto the lunar surface,
Armstrong spoke his immortal line: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for
mankind." The crew of Apollo 11 returned safely to earth on 24 July.

Apollo 12 made a smooth journey to the moon and back, but the next mission—Apollo 13
—encountered serious problems. On the way to the moon in April 1970, one of the
spacecraft's oxygen tanks exploded, crippling the ship and leaving doubt whether the
crew could return safely. Some ingenious work by the astronauts and the NASA
engineers on the ground brought the crew of Apollo 13 home alive. NASA conducted
four more successful expeditions to the moon, but dwindling public interest and
congressional support led to the cancellation of the final two planned flights.

The Space Shuttle


NASA's next major project was the space shuttle, which the agency promoted as a means
of reliable and economical access to space. As it developed the shuttle during the 1970s,
NASA also pursued the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project with the Soviets, Skylab, and a series
of unmanned exploratory missions, including the Viking probe of Mars. The shuttle
began flying in 1981. Although the shuttle proved not to be as efficient as NASA
promised, more than twenty flights had taken place by the end of 1985.

On 28 January 1986, tragedy struck. The shuttle Challenger exploded seventy-three


seconds after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts aboard. The disaster stunned NASA and
the nation. A presidential commission investigating the accident sharply criticized
NASA's management and safety procedures. After revamping the program, shuttle flights
resumed in 1988.

The Space Station

The 1990s saw NASA make significant improvements to the shuttle program, pursue a
variety of unmanned missions (including the impressive Hubble Space Telescope),
continue research in aeronautics and space science, and work on its next major project, an
orbiting space station. Hampered by budgetary restraints and widespread criticisms of the
initial station design, the project progressed slowly. In the mid-1980s, NASA had
announced that the station would be a cooperative effort. Fifteen other nations—
including Russia, America's former rival in space—eventually joined with the United
States to develop the International Space Station (ISS). Russia's own space station, Mir,
orbited the Earth from 1986 to 2001.

In late 1998, the first of more than forty space flights needed to transport and assemble
the station in orbit took place. Plans originally called for international crews of up to
seven astronauts to stay on the station for three to six months at a time. However,
unexpectedly high development costs, plus unexpectedly low financial contributions from
Russia, forced NASA to scale back the project to save money. The first crew to inhabit
the station arrived in November 2000. Assembly of the station was scheduled for
completion around 2004.

(NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting
research and developing operational programs in the areas of space exploration, artificial
satellites (see satellite, artificial), rocketry, and space telescopes (see Hubble Space
Telescope) and observatories. It is also responsible for international cooperation in space
matters. NASA came into existence on Oct. 1, 1958, superseding the National Advisory
Committee on Aeronautics (NACA), an agency that had been oriented primarily toward
laboratory research. While the NACA budget never went higher than $5 million and its
staff never exceeded 500, the NASA annual budget reached $14.2 billion in 1995, and its
staff reached a maximum size of 34,000 in 1966 (21,000 in 1995), with some 400,000
contract employees working directly on agency programs.

The creation of NASA was spurred by American unpreparedness at the time the Soviet
Union launched (Oct. 4, 1957) the first artificial satellite (Sputnik 1). NASA took over the
Langley, Ames, and Lewis research centers from NACA. Soon after its creation, NASA
acquired from the U.S. army the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (operated by the California
Institute of Technology). Later, the Army Ballistic Missile Arsenal (now the Marshall
Space Flight Center) at Huntsville, Ala., was placed under NASA control.

The best-known NASA field installations are the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center near
Houston, Tex., where flights are coordinated, and the John F. Kennedy Space Center at
Cape Canaveral, Fla., where all space shuttle launches take place. Other facilities include
the Dryden, Glenn, Goddard, and Stennis centers and NASA headquarters, in
Washington, D.C. Operationally, NASA is headed by a civilian appointed by the
president and has four divisions: the offices of Space Flight, Space Science Programs,
Aeronautics Exploration and Technology, and Tracking and Data Acquisition. Despite
some highly publicized failures, NASA has in many cases successfully completed its
missions within their projected budgets; the total cost of the Apollo project, for example,
wound up very close to the original $20-billion estimate. Currently, NASA oversees all
space science projects, operates the space shuttle, and launches approximately half of all
military space missions.

The Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) have to date elevated aerospace technologies to great heights. In
a July 31, 1915, interview in Collier's Weekly, aviation pioneer Orville Wright (1871–
1948) said, "The greatest use of the aeroplane [airplane] to date has been as a
tremendously big factor of modern warfare." His statement could also be considered true
today, along with the role played by commercial transportation in world's affairs. The
victory of the United States in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 illustrated the utilization
of air and space to quickly quell an opponent's fighting ability. In this conflict, air and
space utilization came in the form of direct air support, air to ground strategic targeting,
Global Positioning System (GPS) targeting, and aerospace reconnaissance, both airplane
and satellite. This utilization of air and space remains among the most powerful physical
tools for ensuring national security.

NASA and DOD joint research has propelled the advances that make air and space
important military assets. NASA's part in national security strategy is not as substantial as
it was during NASA's first 35 years of existence (during the space race), but it still plays
an important role. As a national icon, NASA inspires nationalism in the American people,
and its achievements are projected worldwide as an exhibit of America's scientific ability.
A superpower nation with a space program was historically perceived as a potential threat
to other nations, as seen with the United States reaction to the launching of the Soviet
Union's Sputnik during the Cold War. The nation's response was the creation of a national
civilian air and space agency called NASA.

NASA aeronautical research spurred numerous advances in aviation from which the
military benefited; early studies regarding lifting bodies and fly-by-wire aircraft, which
used NASA-developed electronics to control the inherently unstable aircraft, are two
examples. Many of the aerospace research projects at the Dryden Flight Research Center
(DFRC) in California are joint projects that advance aerospace engineering, science, and
develop military hardware. Some of the research involves speed of sound (sonic and
supersonic) studies, aeroelastic wing research, lifting body studies, unmanned vehicles,
and other proprietary research.

Even though DOD and NASA have different space programs, they share numerous
resources and have many joint contracts that support both the DOD program and the
NASA program. These range from the simple support contracts for routine battery
maintenance to expansive operations such as communications and spacecraft tracking.
Both organizations share launch pads for expendable launch vehicles. Some of the
expendable launch vehicles at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at Cape Canaveral,
Florida, are the Titan, Atlas, and Delta rockets. Launch and other facilities at KSC are
resources shared by NASA, the Navy, and the Air Force.

NASA played a direct role in national security by providing the means to take heavy
payloads into orbit. DOD has made its most direct use of NASA equipment in utilizing
the Space Shuttle to bring up numerous DOD payloads. The contents of many of these
payloads are classified information. There have been ten DOD dedicated shuttle launches.
They are STS 51C, 51J, 27, 28, 33, 36, 38, 39, 44, and 53 (STS, which stands for Space
Transportation System, also known as the Space Shuttle). Many of these missions remain
secret even today, although some general knowledge about national security-based
payloads has been disseminated and reported. In The Space Shuttle Roles, Missions and
Accomplishments space historian David M. Harland stated that the shuttle delivered three
new reconnaissance satellites in recent years. One satellite, called Lacrosse, provides all-
weather vehicle-tracking capability. Another satellite included an advanced geostationary
listening post. The third satellite is considered to house advanced imaging capabilities. It
remains a secret as to what other DOD dedicated missions delivered to orbit or
accomplished using the shuttle. Classified DOD missions continue to be carried out
today, but mainly utilize the expendable launch vehicles. DOD and NASA both
frequently have multiple minor payloads in addition to the major payload on a mission
(both shuttle and expendable) to save costs. Some of these minor payloads are DOD
sponsored payloads.

At one point, the vision of routine Space Shuttle launches was so powerful that the Air
Force reluctantly agreed to phase out expendable launch vehicles. The Air Force's
acceptance of the shuttle came with imposing requirements on the shuttle to launch heavy
payloads of up to 60,000 pounds and to provide a cargo bay of 18 meters. The shuttle's
payload mass weight has been downgraded to increase its margin of safety. The failure of
the shuttle to run routinely, once a week, and the Challenger accident in 1986 motivated
the DOD and NASA to change the DOD's main launching platform back to the
expendable launch vehicles. Department of Defense then moved to utilizing new heavy
lifting expendable launch vehicles to replace the shuttle's heavy lifting capacity. These
new heavy-launch expendable launch vehicles can deliver almost 50,000 pounds to low
Earth orbit.

Launch vehicles, including the Space Shuttle, utilize hardware that could be used for
military applications such as the sophisticated guidance and navigations systems. The
loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003 required personnel to retrieve instrumentation
from the crash site to secure it to protect the secrecy of the technology.

The most well known NASA personnel are its astronauts. Astronauts have been used to
carry out the DOD dedicated Space Shuttle missions. This required the astronauts to
receive training on the secret payloads in order to properly execute the mission. The
classified information given to the astronauts is usually kept to a minimum of relevant
required knowledge. The payloads are normally loaded into the launch vehicle at the
latest possible opportunity in order to maintain security. Shuttle astronauts repaired one
DOD satellite via EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity), spacewalk, when it failed to start. The
majority of astronauts chosen for these missions have a military background, mostly for
the flight experience. It is difficult to define to what extent NASA personnel have worked
on DOD payloads because of the classified nature and the numerous joint research
activities.

The Air Force has had astronaut-like programs, such as the Spaceflight Engineers and the
Military-Man-In-Space program. Before the shuttle, spaceflight engineers were recruited
to utilize the Gemini spacecraft to go to a planned Manned Orbiting Laboratory. The
orbiting laboratory was cancelled with the introduction of automated cameras on
satellites. Afterwards, spaceflight engineers were Air Force pilots who would train to be
the specialist that would fly on the shuttle to oversee specific DOD payloads. In January,
1985, Gary Payton (a Spaceflight Engineer) flew on the first dedicated DOD shuttle
mission, STS 51C, to supervise the deployment of a classified payload. The spaceflight
engineers program was later disbanded. The Military-Man-In-Space program was
designed to determine the potential for humans to be used for Earth observations. Human
vision and intelligence was found to be a valuable asset as remote sensors, because of
man's adept ability to distinguish subtle variations in hues more accurately than cameras
and film. Remote sensing from space with accurate ground truth can greatly enhance the
understanding of large natural systems like forests and ocean dynamics.

NASA's main role for national security is to inspire the youth of today that will populate
aerospace professions in the future. This pool of technically minded persons will give the
DOD a more intelligent and numerous base from which to recruit a future workforce.
High-risk technologies have the potential to provide tremendous benefit for mankind. For
aeronautics, NASA research divisions are positioned to study more technologies for their
own benefit as well as that of the DOD, and the nation as a whole.

After the Soviet space program's launch of the world's first human-made satellite
(Sputnik 1) on October 4, 1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own
fledgling space efforts. The U.S. Congress, alarmed by the perceived threat to U.S.
security and technological leadership (known as the "Sputnik crisis"), urged immediate
and swift action; President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his advisors counseled more
deliberate measures. Several months of debate produced an agreement that a new federal
agency was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was also created at this time and many of DARPA's
early space programs were soon transferred to NASA.
May 5, 1961 launch of Redstone rocket and NASA's Mercury Freedom 7 with Alan
Shepard on the United States' first manned sub-orbital spaceflight.

Explorer 1, officially Satellite 1958 Alpha, was the first Earth artificial satellite of the
United States, having been launched at 10:48 pm EST on January 31, 1958. On July 29,
1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, establishing
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. When it began operations on October
1, 1958, NASA consisted mainly of the four laboratories and some 80 employees of the
government's 46-year-old research agency, the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics (NACA). A significant contributor to NASA's entry into the Space race was
the technology from the German rocket program, led by Wernher von Braun, who
became a naturalized citizen of the United States after World War II. He is today regarded
as the father of the United States space program. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile
Agency (of which von Braun's team was a part) and the Naval Research Laboratory were
incorporated into NASA.

NASA's earliest programs involved research into human spaceflight and were conducted
under the pressure of the competition between the U.S. and the USSR (the Space Race)
that existed during the Cold War. Project Mercury, initiated in 1958, started NASA down
the path of human space exploration with missions designed to discover simply if man
could survive in space. Representatives from the U.S. Army (M.L. Raines, LTC, USA),
Navy (P.L. Havenstein, CDR, USN) and Air Force (K.G. Lindell, COL, USAF) were
selected/requested to provide assistance to the NASA Space Task Group through
coordination with the existing U.S. defense research and defense contracting
infrastructure, and technical assistance resulting from experimental aircraft (and the
associated military test pilot pool) development in the 1950s. On May 5, 1961, astronaut
Alan Shepard—one of the seven Project Mercury astronauts selected as pilot for this
mission—became the first American in space when he piloted Freedom 7 on a 15-minute
suborbital flight. John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20,
1962 during the 5 and a quarter-hour flight of Friendship 7.

Once the Mercury project proved that human spaceflight was possible, Project Gemini
was launched to conduct experiments and work out issues relating to a moon mission.
The first Gemini flight with astronauts on board, Gemini 3, was flown by Gus Grissom
and John Young on March 23, 1965. Nine other missions followed, showing that long-
duration human space flight was possible, proving that rendezvous and docking with
another vehicle in space was possible, and gathering medical data on the effects of
weightlessness on human beings.

During this time NASA also began to explore the solar system with unmanned probes. As
with the manned program, the Soviets had the first successes, such as the first
photographs of the lunar far side, but NASA's Mariner 2 was the first space probe to visit
another planet, Venus, in 1962.

Apollo program

Main article: Apollo program

The Apollo program was designed to land humans on the Moon and bring them safely
back to Earth. Apollo 1 ended tragically when all the astronauts inside died due to fire in
the command module during an experimental simulation. Because of this incident, there
were a few unmanned tests before men boarded the spacecraft. Apollo 8 and Apollo 10
tested various components while orbiting the Moon, and returned photographs. On July
20, 1969, Apollo 11, landed the first men on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
Apollo 13 did not land on the Moon due to a malfunction, but did return photographs.
The six missions that landed on the Moon returned a wealth of scientific data and almost
400 kilograms of lunar samples. Experiments included soil mechanics, meteoroids,
seismic, heat flow, lunar ranging, magnetic fields, and solar wind experiments.[6]

Skylab

Main article: Skylab

Skylab was the first space station the United States launched into orbit. The 75 tonne
station was in Earth orbit from 1973 to 1979, and was visited by crews three times, in
1973 and 1974. Skylab was originally intended to study gravitational anomalies in other
solar systems, but the assignment was curtailed due to lack of funding and interest. It
included a laboratory for studying the effects of microgravity, and a solar observatory. A
Space Shuttle was planned to dock with and elevate Skylab to a higher safe altitude, but
Skylab reentered the atmosphere and was destroyed in 1979, before the first shuttle could
be launched, landing over parts of Western Australia and the Indian Ocean, with some
fragments being recovered.

Apollo-Soyuz

Main article: Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (or ASTP) was the first joint flight of the U.S. and Soviet
space programs. The mission took place in July 1975. For the United States of America, it
was the last Apollo flight, as well as the last manned space launch until the flight of the
first Space Shuttle in April 1981.
Shuttle era

Space Shuttle Columbia, April 12, 1981.

The Space Shuttle became the major focus of NASA in the late 1970s and the 1980s.
Planned to be a frequently launchable and mostly reusable vehicle, four space shuttles
were built by 1985. The first to launch, Columbia, did so on April 12, 1981.[7]

The shuttle was not all good news for NASA – flights were much more expensive than
initially projected, and the public again lost interest as missions appeared to become
mundane until the 1986 Challenger disaster again highlighted the risks of space flight.
Work began on Space Station Freedom as a focus for the manned space program, but
within NASA there was argument that these projects came at the expense of more
inspiring unmanned missions such as the Voyager probes.

Nonetheless, the shuttle launched milestone projects like the Hubble Space Telescope
(HST). The HST is a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency
(ESA), and its success has paved the way for greater collaboration between the agencies.
The HST was created with a relatively small budget of $2 billion but has continued
operation since 1990, delighting both scientists and the public. Some of its images, such
as the groundbreaking Hubble Deep Field, have become famous.

In 1995 Russian-American interaction resumed with the Shuttle-Mir missions. Once


more an American vehicle docked with a Russian craft, this time a full-fledged space
station. This cooperation continues to today, with Russia and America the two biggest
partners in the largest space station ever built – the International Space Station (ISS). The
strength of their cooperation on this project was even more evident when NASA began
relying on Russian launch vehicles to service the ISS during the two year grounding of
the shuttle fleet following the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, which killed the
crew of six Americans and one Israeli, caused a 29-month hiatus in space shuttle flights
and triggered a serious re-examination of NASA's priorities. The U.S. government,
various scientists, and the public all reconsidered the future of the space program.

Costing over $100 billion, it has been difficult at times for NASA to justify the ISS.[citation
needed]
The population at large has historically been hard to impress with details of
scientific experiments in space, preferring news of grand projects to exotic
locations.[citation needed] Even now, the ISS cannot accommodate as many scientists as
planned.

During much of the 1990s, NASA was faced with shrinking annual budgets due to
Congressional belt-tightening in Washington, D.C. In response, NASA's ninth
administrator, Daniel Goldin, pioneered the "faster, better, cheaper" approach that
enabled NASA to cut costs while still delivering a wide variety of aerospace programs
(Discovery Program). That method was criticized and re-evaluated following the twin
losses of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander in 1999. Yet, NASA's shuttle
program had made 116 successful launches as of December 2006.

NASA's future

Left to Right: Saturn V, which last carried men to the Moon, the Space Shuttle, the
planned Ares I, proposed Ares IV and planned Ares V launch vehicles.

NASA's ongoing investigations include in-depth surveys of Mars and Saturn and studies
of the Earth and the Sun. Other NASA spacecraft are presently en route to Mercury and
Pluto. With missions to Jupiter in planning stages, NASA's itinerary covers over half the
solar system.

Managed by the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, the
Phoenix mission was launched on August 4, 2008. It will search for possible underground
water courses in the northern Martian pole. This lander revives much of its experiments
and instrumentation from the failed 1999 Mars Polar Lander, hence its name. An
improved and larger rover, Mars Science Laboratory, is under construction and slated to
launch in 2009. On the horizon of NASA's plans are two possibilities under consideration
for the Mars Scout 2013 mission.

The New Horizons mission to Pluto was launched in 2006 and will fly by Pluto in 2015.
The probe received a gravity assist from Jupiter in February 2007, examining some of
Jupiter's inner moons and testing on-board instruments during the fly-by.

Vision for space exploration

Main article: Vision for Space Exploration


Orion Contractor Selected August 31, 2006, at NASA Headquarters.

On January 14, 2004, ten days after the landing of the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, US
President George W. Bush announced a new plan for NASA's future, dubbed the Vision
for Space Exploration. According to this plan, mankind will return to the Moon by 2018,
and set up outposts as a testbed and potential resource for future missions. The Space
Shuttle will be retired in 2010 and Orion will replace it by 2015, capable of both docking
with the International Space Station (ISS) and leaving the Earth's orbit. The future of the
ISS is somewhat uncertain – construction will be completed, but beyond that is less clear.
Although the plan initially met with skepticism from Congress, in late 2004 Congress
agreed to provide start-up funds for the first year's worth of the new space vision.

Hoping to spur innovation from the private sector, NASA established a series of
Centennial Challenges, technology prizes for non-government teams, in 2004. The
Challenges include tasks that will be useful for implementing the Vision for Space
Exploration, such as building more efficient astronaut gloves.

Mission statement

NASA's 50th Anniversary Logo.

From 2002, NASA’s mission statement, used in budget and planning documents, read:
“To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life;
to inspire the next generation of explorers ... as only NASA can.” In early February 2006,
the statement was altered, with the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet”
deleted.[8] Some outside observers believe the change was intended to preserve the
civilian nature of the agency, while others suspected it was related to criticism of
government policy on global warming by NASA scientists like James Hansen. NASA
officials have denied any connection to the latter, pointing to new priorities for space
exploration. The chair and ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs wrote NASA Administrator Griffin on July 31, 2006
expressing concerns about the change.[9] NASA also canceled or delayed a number of
earth science missions in 2006.[10]

Moon base

On December 4, 2006, NASA announced it was planning to build a permanent moon


base.[11] NASA Associate Administrator Scott Horowitz said the goal was to start building
the moonbase by 2020, and by 2024, have a fully functional base, that would allow for
crew rotations like the International Space Station. Additionally, NASA plans to
collaborate and partner with other nations for this project.[12]

Man on Mars

On September 28, 2007, NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin stated that NASA aims
to put a man on Mars by 2037, and in 2057, "We should be celebrating 20 years of man
on Mars."[13]

Spaceflight missions
Main article: List of NASA missions

Buzz Aldrin

NASA has had many successful space missions and programs, including over 150
manned missions. Many of the notable manned missions were from the Apollo program,
a sequence of missions to the Moon which included the achievement of the first man to
walk on the Moon, during Apollo 11. The Space Shuttle program has also been a
success,[citation needed] despite the loss of two of the Space Shuttles, Challenger and
Columbia which resulted in the deaths of their entire crews. The Space Shuttles were able
to dock with the space station Mir while it was operational, and are now able to dock with
the International Space Station – a joint project of many space agencies. NASA's future
plans for space exploration are with the Project Constellation.

There have been many unmanned NASA space missions as well, including at least one
that visited each of the other seven planets in our Solar System, and four missions
(Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, and Voyager 2) that have left our solar system. There
has been much recent success with the missions to Mars, including the Mars Exploration
Rovers, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Phoenix Mars Lander. NASA remains
the only space agency to have launched space missions to the outer solar system beyond
the asteroid belt.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

The Cassini probe, launched in 1997 and in orbit around Saturn since mid-2004, is
investigating Saturn and its inner satellites. With over twenty years in the making,
Cassini-Huygens is an example of international cooperation between JPL-NASA and the
European Space Agency (ESA).

Built entirely by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, NASA
probes have been continually performing science at Mars since 1997, with at least two
orbiters since 2001 and several Mars rovers. The orbiting Mars Odyssey and Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter will continue monitoring the geology and climate of the Red
Planet, as well as searching for evidence of past or present water and life, as they have
since 2001 and 2006, respectively. If the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft's nine-year
lifetime is typical, these probes will continue to advance our knowledge for years to
come. The Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity have been traversing the
surface of Mars at Gusev crater and Meridiani Planum since early 2004, and will
continue to image and investigate those environments. They have both already operated
over seventeen times longer than expected, and remain a promising part of NASA's
future. Adding to this flotilla is the Phoenix Mars Lander, which executed a perfect
powered touchdown in the northern latitudes of Mars on May 25, 2008 after a 10-month
journey of more than 420 million miles.

NASA Advisory Council


With the creation of NASA in 1958, the NACA was abolished, and its research centers--
Ames Research Center, Lewis Research Center, and Langley Aeronautical Laboratory--
were incorporated within the new space and aeronautics agency along with some
elements of the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy. In 1967, Congress directed NASA to form an
Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) to advise the NASA Administrator on safety
issues and hazards in NASA's aerospace programs. In addition, there were the Space
Program Advisory Council and the Research and Technology Advisory Council.

In 1977, these were all combined to form the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) which is
the successor to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.[14]

Leadership
Main article: List of NASA Administrators

The Administrator of NASA is the highest-ranking official of that organization and serves
as the senior space science adviser to the President of the United States. The current
NASA Administrator is Michael D. Griffin, whose term started on April 14, 2005.
According to NASA, his role is to "lead the NASA team and manage its resources to
advance the Vision for Space Exploration."[15]

The current Deputy Administrator of NASA is Shana Dale, who started her term on
November 4, 2005. According to NASA, "Dale serves as the agency’s second in
command and is responsible to the administrator for providing overall leadership,
planning, and policy direction for the agency. Dale represents NASA to the Executive
Office of the President, Congress, heads of federal and other appropriate government
agencies, international organizations, and external organizations and communities. Dale
also oversees the day to day work of NASA’s functional offices, such as the Office of the
Chief Financial Officer, Office of General Counsel and Strategic Communications."[16]

Field installations
NASA's headquarters is located in Washington, D.C.

NASA's Shared Services center is located on the grounds of the John C. Stennis Space
Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Construction of their facility began in August
2006 and it was completed in June 2008.

NASA has field and research installations listed below by application. Some facilities
serve more than one application due to historical or administrative reasons.

Research centers

• Ames Research Center, Moffett Federal Airfield, California


The JPL complex in Pasadena, California

• Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,


California
• Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York City
• Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
• John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, Ohio
• Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia

Test facilities

• Ames Research Center, Moffett Federal Airfield


• Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base
• Independent Verification and Validation Facility, Fairmont, West Virginia
• John C. Stennis Space Center, near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
• Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia

Construction and launch facilities

Kennedy Space Center.

• George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama


• John F. Kennedy Space Center, Florida
• Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas
• Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, Louisiana
• Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia
• White Sands Test Facility, Las Cruces, New Mexico

Deep Space Network


• Deep Space Network (DSN) stations
o Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, Canberra, Australian
Capital Territory
o Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, Barstow, California
o Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, Madrid, Spain

Tourism and museum facilities

• Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Merritt Island, Florida


• Space Center Houston, Houston, Texas
• United States Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama

Aircraft

A NASA Boeing 737-100 landing.

A NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a modified Boeing 747-100SR.

Throughout its history, NASA has used several different types of aircraft on a permanent,
semi-permanent, or short-term basis. These aircraft are usually surplus (or in a few cases
new-built) military aircraft. Included among these are:

• B-57 Canberra. Two Martin WB-57Fs are currently operating from Lyndon B.
Johnson Space Center as high altitude research platforms for atmospheric research
and Space Shuttle monitoring.
• Boeing 747. Two 747s, one registered N905NA (which is a 747-100 model that
was acquired from American Airlines in 1974) and a second registered N911NA
(a 747-100SR model purchased from Japan Airlines in 1988) are currently used
by NASA as Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Another Boeing 747 (a 747SP model
purchased from United Airlines in 1996) is in use since 2007 as SOFIA.
• C-141 Starlifter. In the early 1960s a single C-141A was procured by NASA for
use as a heavy transport aircraft. The C-141A Kuiper Airborne Observatory, was
operated from 1974 to 1995.
• C-5 Galaxy. Two specially designed C-5Cs were procured by NASA for use as a
heavy transport aircraft and flown by USAF crews.
• C-9 Skytrain II. One ex-USN C-9B was taken in hand in 2005 to replace the
famous KC-135s used in NASA's Reduced Gravity Research Program.
• Convair 990. Nicknamed Galileo, it was used as an airborne laboratory for
research in aeronautics, astronautics, astronomy, and earth observations. The
Galileo I aircraft perished in a mid-air collision in 1973. The Galileo II continued
service into the 1980s.
• F-104 Starfighter. Three F-104Gs delivered to NASA in 1963 for use as high
speed chase aircraft and redesignated F-104N. One of these aircraft, piloted by
Joe Walker, collided with the XB-70 Valkyrie experimental bomber on June 8,
1966, killing Walker. NASA retired its last F-104 in 1995.
• F-106 Delta Dart. From 1986 a handful of F-106As, redesignated QF-106A, were
retained by NASA for test purposes, the last being retired in 1998.
• F-15 Eagle. One modified ex-USAF F-15, the F-15S/MTD, has been in use as a
technology demonstrator and technology research aircraft since 1993, being used
in the ACTIVE (1993-1999) and IFCS (2002-) programs.
• F-16 Fighting Falcon. From 1988 until 1999, 2 prototypes of the F-16XL,
designed as a competitor to the F-15E Strike Eagle in the USAF's Enhanced
Tactical Fighter program, were taken in hand by NASA for aeronautical research.
• F-8 Crusader. Several F-8Cs were used by NASA in the early 1970s to test such
features as Digital Fly-By-Wire Control System and supercritical wings, which
have become standard on modern high performance military aircraft.
• KC-135 Stratotanker. Two ex-USAF KC-135As (designated N930NA and
N931NA) were used by NASA from 1973 to 2004 for the Reduced Gravity
Research Program, where potential astronauts are exposed to simulated near-
weightlessness. It were these aircraft that collectively gained the name Vomit
Comet.
• Paresev. The Paresev program included the Paresev 1B designed by Charles
Richard and flown by eight pilots was a hanging-pilot glider; the ornamental lines
of the wing of the Paresev 1B along with influence from the Fleep and other
related actions and patents by Francis M. Rogallo gave foundation to the large
hang gliders, ultralight trikes, and ultralight aircraft developments from 1960
forward; in count, this development has been outnumbering all other manned
aircraft in the world.
• P-3 Orion. NASA currently uses the P-3 as an earth-science suborbital research
platform and is located at Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility,
Virginia.
• SR-71 Blackbird. Two SR-71Bs were used as trainers by NASA between 1991
and 1999.
• T-38 Talon. A number of T-38As have been used by NASA as jet trainers for its
astronauts since the 1960s. NASA's T-38 fleet is housed primarily at Ellington
Field in Houston, Texas.
• U-2 "Dragon Lady". Two U-2s have been modified to the ER-2 (Earth Resources
-2) standard and are currently in use at Dryden Flight Research Center for use in
various high altitude research projects.
• North American X-15. Rocket plane which flew from 1959 to 1968. Conceived by
NACA, three were built and explored the regime of hypersonic flight. It is often
regarded as a direct predecessor to the Space Shuttle.

Related legislation

Florida, USA, taken from NASA Shuttle Mission STS-95 on October 31, 1998.

• 1958 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration PL 85-568 (passed on July


29)
• 1961 – Apollo mission funding PL 87-98 A
• 1970 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Research and
Development Act PL 91-119
• 1984 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act PL 98-
361
• 1988 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act PL 100-
685
• 2005 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2005
• NASA Budget 1958–current, in Constant Year Dollars

Awards and decorations


Main article: Awards and decorations of the United States government#NASA

NASA presently bestows a number of medals and decorations to astronauts and other
NASA personnel. Some awards are authorized for wear on active duty military uniforms.
The highest award is the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, which has been awarded
to 28 individuals (17 posthumously), and is said to recognize "any astronaut who in the
performance of his duties has distinguished himself by exceptionally meritorious efforts
and contributions to the welfare of the Nation and mankind."

The second highest NASA award is the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, which may
be presented to any member of the federal government, including both military astronauts
and civilian employees. It is an annual award, given out at the National Aeronautics
Space Foundation plant, located in Orlando, Florida.

Environmental record
Ozone depletion

In the middle of the 20th century NASA augmented its mission of Earth’s observation
and redirected it toward environmental quality. The result was the launch of Earth
Observing System (EOS) in 1980s, which was able to monitor one of the global
environmental problems – ozone depletion.[17] The first comprehensive worldwide
measurements were obtained in 1978 with the Nimbus-7 satellite and NASA scientists at
the Goddard Institute for Space Studies.[18]

Salt evaporation

In one of the nation's largest restoration projects NASA technology helps state and
federal government reclaim 15,100 acres (61 km2) of salt evaporation ponds in South San
Francisco Bay. Satellite sensors are used by a group of scientist to study the effect of salt
evaporation on local ecology.[19]

Energy management

NASA has started Energy Efficiency and Water Conservation Program as an agency-wide
program directed to prevent pollution and reduce energy and water utilization. It helps to
ensure that NASA meets its federal stewardship responsibilities for the environment.[20]

Earth Science Enterprise

Understanding of natural and human-induced changes on the global environment is the


main objective of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. For years it has been cooperating
with major environment related agencies and creating united projects to achieve their
goal. Past Enterprise’s programs include:

• Carbon sequestration assessment for Carbon Management (USDA, DOE)


• Early warning systems for air and water quality for Homeland Security (OHS,
NIMA, USGS)
• Enhanced weather predication for Energy Forecasting (DOE, United States
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA))
• Environmental indicators for Coastal Management (NOAA)
• Environmental indicators for Community Growth Management (EPA, USGS,
NSGIC)
• Environmental models for Biological Invasive Species (USGS, USDA)
• Regional to national to international atmospheric measurements and predictions
for Air Quality Management (United States Environmental Protection Agency,
NOAA)
• Water cycle science for Water Management and Conservation (EPA, USDA)

NASA is working in cooperation with National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).


The goal is to obtain to produce worldwide solar resource maps with great local detail.[22]
NASA was also one of the main participants in the evaluation innovative technologies for
the clean up of the sources for dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs). On April 6,
1999, the agency signed The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) along with the United
States Environmental Protection Agency, DOE, and USAF authorizing all the above
organizations to conduct necessary tests at the John F. Kennedy Space center. The main
purpose was to evaluate two innovative in-situ remediation technologies, thermal
removal and oxidation destruction of DNAPLs.[23] National Space Agency made a
partnership with Military Services and Defense Contract Management Agency named the
“Joint Group on Pollution Prevention”. The group is working on reduction or elimination
of hazardous materials or processes.

On May 8, 2003, Environmental Protection Agency recognized NASA as the first federal
agency to directly use landfill gas to produce energy at one of its facilities - the Goddard
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

Criticism
Delays to completing the International Space Station

Currently, the International Space Station (ISS) relies on the Shuttle fleet for all major
construction shipments. The Shuttle fleet lost two spacecraft and fourteen astronauts in
two disasters: Challenger in 1986, and Columbia in 2003. While the 1986 loss was
mitigated by building the Space Shuttle Endeavour from replacement parts, NASA has no
plans to build another shuttle to replace the second loss, and instead will be transitioning
to a new spacecraft called Orion.

The ISS was envisioned to eventually have a crew of seven, but following the Columbia
Shuttle accident, the permanent space station crew of three was reduced to two,
comprising one Russian and one American for six months at a time. The result was that
European and Japanese astronauts could not stay for longer missions. As of 2006, the
station has been restored to a crew of three, and plans call for an increase to six in 2009,
during Expedition 19.

Other nations that have invested in the space station's construction, such as the members
of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA), have expressed concern over the completion of the ISS. The schedule NASA
planned does have flexibility in it, and Associate Administrator for Space Operations
William H. Gerstenmaier explained that the shuttle had completed three missions within
six months in 2007, showing that NASA can still meet the deadlines necessary for the
critical flights remaining.

Alleged alcohol use

Following the arrest of Lisa Nowak in February 2007, NASA Administrator Michael D.
Griffin commissioned an independent panel, the NASA Astronaut Health Care System
Review Committee, to examine how well NASA attended to the mental health of its
astronauts. The initial report released by the panel raised questions in regards to possible
alcohol use prior to flight. However, the report offered no specifics, no facts to
substantiate the claims, and stated that no attempt to confirm or investigate the allegations
had been performed.

Shuttle commander Scott J. Kelly was vocal in his criticism of the report during
interviews prior to STS-118, stating that it was beyond his comprehension that astronauts
would ever consider what was suggested. Following the release of the independent panel
report, NASA ordered an internal review, The Space Flight Safety Review.

On August 29, 2007, Chief Safety and Mission Assurance Officer Bryan O'Connor
reported that after the month-long review, NASA found that there was no evidence to
verify the independent panel's report that astronauts have been allowed to fly drunk.
Additionally, investigation into all incident reports dating from 1984 to 2007, found no
incident involving alcohol or drug use. The report's findings specifically stated:

The culture of professionalism in today’s astronaut corps, along with the


“ highly visible, structured and supervised schedule during the last several days
prior to launch, provide reasonable controls to avoid flying an alcohol-
impaired crewmember. In light of all the other controls in place on launch
day, the L-0 flight surgeon check provides a reasonable likelihood of
identifying signs of illness or impairment of the level that would threaten
flight safety. ”
In response to the internal review, policies at NASA would be changed in a variety of
ways: Flight surgeons would be present during the pre-mission suit-up activities, flight
surgeons would receive additional training in psychiatric evaluation, and although there
was an unofficial code of conduct in place, an official "Code of Conduct" would be
written up for employees.[36]

Stern resignation

Alan Stern, NASA's "hard-charging" and "reform-minded" Associate Administrator for


the Science Mission Directorate, resigned on March 25, 2008,] to be effective April 11,
after he ordered funding cuts to the Mars rovers and Mars Odyssey that were overturned
by NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin. The cuts were intended to offset cost
overruns for the Mars Science Laboratory. Stern, who served for nearly a year and has
been credited with making "significant changes that have helped restore the importance
of science in NASA’s mission.", says he left to avoid cutting healthy programs and basic
research in favor of politically sensitive projects. Griffin favors cutting "less popular
parts" of the budget, including basic research, and Stern's refusal to do so led to his
resignation.

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