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NASA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For other uses, see NASA (disambiguation).
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
A blue sphere with stars, a yellow planet with a white moon; a red chevron
representing wings, and an orbiting spacecraft; surrounded by a white border with
"NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION U.S.A." in red letters
NASA seal
A blue sphere with stars, white letters N-A-S-A in Helvetica font; a red chevron
representing wings, and an orbiting spacecraft
NASA "meatball" insignia
A red line forming stylized letters N-A-S-A
NASA "worm" logotype
NASA HQ Building.jpg
NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Agency overview
Abbreviation NASA
Formed July 29, 1958; 63 years ago
Preceding agency
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (1915–1958)[1]
Type Space agency
Jurisdiction United States Federal Government
Headquarters Washington, D.C.
38°52′59″N 77°0′59″WCoordinates: 38°52′59″N 77°0′59″W
Motto For the Benefit of All[2]
Administrator Bill Nelson
Deputy Administrator Pamela Melroy
Primary spaceports
John F. Kennedy Space CenterCape Canaveral Space Force StationVandenberg Space
Force Base
Owner United States
Employees 17,373 (2020)[3]
Annual budget Increase US$22.629 billion (2020)[4]
Website NASA.gov
Part of a series on the
United States Space Program
NASA logo.svgUnited States Space Force logo.svg
NASAU.S. Space Force
Human spaceflight programs
Robotic spaceflight programs
NASA Astronaut Corps
Spaceports
Space launch vehicles
National security space
Civil space
Commercial space industry
vte
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA /ˈnæsə/) is an independent
agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civilian space program,
as well as aeronautics and space research.[note 1]

NASA was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency was to have a distinctly civilian orientation,
encouraging peaceful applications in space science.[7][8][9] Since its
establishment, most US space exploration efforts have been led by NASA, including
the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space
Shuttle. NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the
development of the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System, Commercial Crew
vehicles, and the planned Lunar Gateway space station. The agency is also
responsible for the Launch Services Program, which provides oversight of launch
operations and countdown management for uncrewed NASA launches.

NASA's science is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing
System;[10] advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission
Directorate's Heliophysics Research Program;[11] exploring bodies throughout the
Solar System with advanced robotic spacecraft such as New Horizons;[12] and
researching astrophysics topics, such as the Big Bang, through the Great
Observatories and associated programs.[13]

Contents
1 History
1.1 Creation
1.1.1 Insignia
1.2 Foundational human spaceflight
1.2.1 X-15 program (1954–1968)
1.2.2 Project Mercury (1958–1963)
1.2.3 Project Gemini (1961–1966)
1.2.4 Project Apollo (1960–1972)
1.2.5 Skylab (1965–1979)
1.2.6 Apollo-Soyuz (1972–1975)
2 Leadership
3 Facilities
3.1 Inherited from NACA
3.2 Transferred from the Army
3.3 Built by NASA
4 Modern human spaceflight programs
4.1 Space Shuttle program (1972–2011)
4.2 International Space Station (1993–present)
4.3 Constellation program (2005–2010)
4.4 Commercial Crew Program (2011–present)
4.5 Journey to Mars (2010–2017)
4.6 Artemis program (2017–present)
5 Satellites, probes, rovers, launch vehicles
5.1 Earth, Moon, and L2 point
5.2 Inner solar system (including Mars)
5.3 Outer solar system
6 Near-Earth object detection
7 Research
8 Environmental impact
9 Goals and directives
9.1 NASA Authorization Act of 2017
9.2 Space Policy Directive 1
9.3 Goals
10 Budget
11 Media
11.1 NASAcast
11.2 NASA EDGE
11.2.1 Cast and crew
11.2.2 Reception
11.2.3 Interactive projects
12 Miscellaneous
12.1 NASA Advisory Council
12.2 Use of the metric system
12.3 Partnership with the United States Space Force
12.4 Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
13 Gallery
13.1 Observations
13.2 Past and current spacecraft
13.3 Planned spacecraft
13.4 Concepts
14 See also
14.1 Articles about NASA
14.2 Related agencies
15 Explanatory notes
16 References
17 Sources
18 Further reading
19 External links
History
Creation
Main article: Creation of NASA
File:NASA 60th- How It All Began.webm
Short documentary about NASA
Beginning in 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) began
experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1.[14] In the early
1950s, there was challenge to launch an artificial satellite for the International
Geophysical Year (1957–1958). An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard.
After the Soviet space program's launch of the world's first artificial 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 national security and technological leadership (known as the "Sputnik crisis"),
urged immediate and swift action; President Dwight D. Eisenhower counseled more
deliberate measures. The result was a consensus that the White House forged among
key interest groups, including scientists committed to basic research; the Pentagon
which had to match the Soviet military achievement; corporate America looking for
new business; and a strong new trend in public opinion looking up to space
exploration.[15]

On January 12, 1958, NACA organized a "Special Committee on Space Technology,"

headed by Guyford Stever.[9] On January 14, 1958, NACA Director Hugh Dryden
published "A National Research Program for Space Technology," stating,[16]

It is of great urgency and importance to our country both from consideration of our
prestige as a nation as well as military necessity that this challenge [Sputnik] be
met by an energetic program of research and development for the conquest of
space ... It is accordingly proposed that the scientific research be the
responsibility of a national civilian agency ... NACA is capable, by rapid
extension and expansion of its effort, of providing leadership in space technology.
[16]

While this new federal agency would conduct all non-military space activity, the
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was created in February 1958 to develop
space technology for military application.[17]

On July 29, 1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act,
establishing NASA. When it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA absorbed the
43-year-old NACA intact; its 8,000 employees, an annual budget of US$100 million,
three major research laboratories (Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Ames
Aeronautical Laboratory, and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory) and two small test
facilities.[18] Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States
Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA. A significant contributor to
NASA's entry into the Space Race with the Soviet Union was the technology from the
German rocket program led by Wernher von Braun, who was now working for the Army
Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), which in turn incorporated the technology of
American scientist Robert Goddard's earlier works.[19] Earlier research efforts
within the US Air Force[18] and many of ARPA's early space programs were also
transferred to NASA.[20] In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, a contractor facility operated by the California Institute
of Technology.[18]

Insignia
Main article: NASA insignia
The NASA seal was approved by Eisenhower in 1959, and slightly modified by
President John F. Kennedy in 1961.[21][22] NASA's first logo was designed by the
head of Lewis' Research Reports Division, James Modarelli, as a simplification of
the 1959 seal.[23] In 1975, the original logo was first dubbed "the meatball" to
distinguish it from the newly designed "worm" logo which replaced it. The
"meatball" returned to official use in 1992.[23] The "worm" was brought out of
retirement in 2020 by administrator Jim Bridenstine.[24]

Foundational human spaceflight

X-15 program (1954–1968)
Main article: North American X-15

X-15 in powered flight

NASA inherited NACA's X-15 experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research
aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force and Navy. Three planes
were built starting in 1955. The X-15 was drop-launched from the wing of one of two
NASA Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses, NB52A tail number 52-003, and NB52B, tail number
52-008 (known as the Balls 8). Release took place at an altitude of about 45,000
feet (14 km) and a speed of about 500 miles per hour (805 km/h).[25]

Twelve pilots were selected for the program from the Air Force, Navy, and NACA. A
total of 199 flights were made between June 1959 and December 1968, resulting in
the official world record for the highest speed ever reached by a crewed powered
aircraft (current as of 2014), and a maximum speed of Mach 6.72, 4,519 miles per
hour (7,273 km/h).[26] The altitude record for X-15 was 354,200 feet (107.96 km).
[27] Eight of the pilots were awarded Air Force astronaut wings for flying above
260,000 feet (80 km), and two flights by Joseph A. Walker exceeded 100 kilometers
(330,000 ft), qualifying as spaceflight according to the International Aeronautical
Federation. The X-15 program employed mechanical techniques used in the later
crewed spaceflight programs, including reaction control system jets for controlling
the orientation of a spacecraft, space suits, and horizon definition for
navigation.[27] The reentry and landing data collected were valuable to NASA for
designing the Space Shuttle.[28]

Project Mercury (1958–1963)

Main article: Project Mercury

L. Gordon Cooper, photographed by a slow-scan television camera aboard Faith 7,

1963
In 1958, NASA formed an engineering group, the Space Task Group, to manage their
human spaceflight programs under the direction of Robert Gilruth. Their earliest
programs were conducted under the pressure of the Cold War competition between the
U.S. and the Soviet Union. NASA inherited the US Air Force's Man in Space Soonest
program, which considered many crewed spacecraft designs ranging from rocket planes
like the X-15, to small ballistic space capsules.[29] By 1958, the space plane
concepts were eliminated in favor of the ballistic capsule,[30] and NASA renamed it
Project Mercury. The first seven astronauts were selected among candidates from the
Navy, Air Force and Marine test pilot programs. On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan
Shepard became the first American in space aboard a capsule he named Freedom 7,
launched on a Redstone booster on a 15-minute ballistic (suborbital) flight.[31]
John Glenn became the first American to be launched into orbit, on an Atlas launch
vehicle on February 20, 1962, aboard Friendship 7.[32] Glenn completed three
orbits, after which three more orbital flights were made, culminating in L. Gordon
Cooper's 22-orbit flight Faith 7, May 15–16, 1963.[33] Katherine Johnson, Mary
Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan were three of the human computers doing calculations
on trajectories during the Space Race.[34][35][36] Johnson was well known for doing
trajectory calculations for John Glenn's mission in 1962, where she was running the
same equations by hand that were being run on the computer.[34]

Mercury's competition from the Soviet Union (USSR) was the single-pilot Vostok
spacecraft. They sent the first man in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, into a single
Earth orbit aboard Vostok 1 in April 1961, one month before Shepard's flight.[37]
In August 1962, they achieved an almost four-day record flight with Andriyan
Nikolayev aboard Vostok 3, and also conducted a concurrent Vostok 4 mission
carrying Pavel Popovich.

Project Gemini (1961–1966)

Main article: Project Gemini

Richard Gordon performs a spacewalk to attach a tether to the Agena Target Vehicle
on Gemini 11, 1966
Based on studies to grow the Mercury spacecraft capabilities to long-duration
flights, developing space rendezvous techniques, and precision Earth landing,
Project Gemini was started as a two-man program in 1961 to overcome the Soviets'
lead and to support the Apollo crewed lunar landing program, adding extravehicular
activity (EVA) and rendezvous and docking to its objectives. The first crewed
Gemini flight, Gemini 3, was flown by Gus Grissom and John Young on March 23, 1965.
[38] Nine missions followed in 1965 and 1966, demonstrating an endurance mission of
nearly fourteen days, rendezvous, docking, and practical EVA, and gathering medical
data on the effects of weightlessness on humans.[39][40]

Under the direction of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the USSR competed with
Gemini by converting their Vostok spacecraft into a two- or three-man Voskhod. They
succeeded in launching two crewed flights before Gemini's first flight, achieving a
three-cosmonaut flight in 1964 and the first EVA in 1965. After this, the program
was canceled, and Gemini caught up while spacecraft designer Sergei Korolev
developed the Soyuz spacecraft, their answer to Apollo.

Project Apollo (1960–1972)

Main article: Apollo program

Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, 1969

The U.S public's perception of the Soviet lead in the Space Race (by putting the
first man into space) motivated President John F. Kennedy[41] to ask the Congress
on May 25, 1961, to commit the federal government to a program to land a man on the
Moon by the end of the 1960s, which effectively launched the Apollo program.[42]

Apollo was one of the most expensive American scientific programs ever. It cost
more than $20 billion in 1960s dollars[43] or an estimated $225 billion in present-
day US dollars.[44] (In comparison, the Manhattan Project cost roughly $28.8
billion, accounting for inflation.)[44][45] It used the Saturn rockets as launch
vehicles, which were far bigger than the rockets built for previous projects.[46]
The spacecraft was also bigger; it had two main parts, the combined command and
service module (CSM) and the Apollo Lunar Module (LM). The LM was to be left on the
Moon and only the command module (CM) containing the three astronauts would return
to Earth.[note 2]

The second crewed mission, Apollo 8, brought astronauts for the first time in a
flight around the Moon in December 1968.[47] Shortly before, the Soviets had sent
an uncrewed spacecraft around the Moon.[48] On the next two missions docking
maneuvers that were needed for the Moon landing were practiced[49][50] and then
finally the Moon landing was made on the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969.[51]

The first person to walk on the Moon was Neil Armstrong, who was followed 19
minutes later by Buzz Aldrin, while Michael Collins orbited above. Five subsequent
Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last in December 1972.
Throughout these six Apollo spaceflights, twelve men walked on the Moon. These
missions returned a wealth of scientific data and 381.7 kilograms (842 lb) of lunar
samples. Topics covered by experiments performed included soil mechanics,
meteoroids, seismology, heat flow, lunar ranging, magnetic fields, and solar wind.
[52][page needed] The Moon landing marked the end of the space race; and as a
gesture, Armstrong mentioned mankind when he stepped down on the Moon.[53]

Apollo set major milestones in human spaceflight. It stands alone in sending crewed
missions beyond low Earth orbit, and landing humans on another celestial body.[54]
Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to orbit another celestial body, while
Apollo 17 marked the last moonwalk and the last crewed mission beyond low Earth
orbit. The program spurred advances in many areas of technology peripheral to
rocketry and crewed spaceflight, including avionics, telecommunications, and
computers. Apollo sparked interest in many fields of engineering and left many
physical facilities and machines developed for the program as landmarks. Many
objects and artifacts from the program are on display at various locations
throughout the world, notably at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museums.

Skylab (1965–1979)
Main article: Skylab

Skylab in 1974, seen from the departing Skylab 4 CSM.

Skylab was the United States' first and only independently built space station.[55]
Conceived in 1965 as a workshop to be constructed in space from a spent Saturn IB
upper stage, the 169,950 lb (77,088 kg) station was constructed on Earth and
launched on May 14, 1973, atop the first two stages of a Saturn V, into a 235-
nautical-mile (435 km) orbit inclined at 50° to the equator. Damaged during launch
by the loss of its thermal protection and one electricity-generating solar panel,
it was repaired to functionality by its first crew. It was occupied for a total of
171 days by 3 successive crews in 1973 and 1974.[55] It included a laboratory for
studying the effects of microgravity, and a solar observatory.[55] NASA planned to
have a Space Shuttle dock with it, and elevate Skylab to a higher safe altitude,
but the Shuttle was not ready for flight before Skylab's re-entry on July 11, 1979.
[56]

To reduce cost, NASA used one of the Saturn V rockets originally earmarked for a
canceled Apollo mission to launch the Skylab. Apollo spacecraft were used for
transporting astronauts to and from the station. Three three-man crews stayed
aboard the station for periods of 28, 59, and 84 days. Skylab's habitable volume
was 11,290 cubic feet (320 m3), which was 30.7 times bigger than that of the Apollo
Command Module.[56]

Apollo-Soyuz (1972–1975)
Main article: Apollo-Soyuz

Soviet and American crews with spacecraft model, 1975.

On May 24, 1972, US President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin
signed an agreement calling for a joint crewed space mission, and declaring intent
for all future international crewed spacecraft to be capable of docking with each
other.[57] This authorized the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), involving the
rendezvous and docking in Earth orbit of a surplus Apollo command and service
module with a Soyuz spacecraft. The mission took place in July 1975. This was the
last US human spaceflight until the first orbital flight of the Space Shuttle in
April 1981.[58]

The mission included both joint and separate scientific experiments and provided
useful engineering experience for future joint US–Russian space flights, such as
the Shuttle–Mir program[59] and the International Space Station.

Leadership
Main article: List of Administrators and Deputy Administrators of NASA

Administrator Bill Nelson

The agency's leader, NASA's administrator, is nominated by the President of the
United States subject to the approval of the US Senate,[60] and reports to him or
her and serves as a senior space science advisor. Though space exploration is
ostensibly non-partisan, the appointee usually is associated with the President's
political party (Democratic or Republican), and a new administrator is usually
chosen when the Presidency changes parties. The only exceptions to this have been:

Democrat Thomas O. Paine, acting administrator under Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson,

stayed on while Republican Richard Nixon tried but failed to get one of his own
choices to accept the job. Paine was confirmed by the Senate in March 1969 and
served through September 1970.[61]
Republican James C. Fletcher, appointed by Nixon and confirmed in April 1971,
stayed through May 1977 into the term of Democrat Jimmy Carter.
Daniel Goldin was appointed by Republican George H. W. Bush and stayed through the
entire administration of Democrat Bill Clinton.
Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr., associate administrator under Democrat Barack Obama, was
kept on as acting administrator by Republican Donald Trump until Trump's own
choice, Jim Bridenstine, was confirmed in April 2018.[62]
Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator under Donald Trump, filled the
administrator's chair until Democrat Joe Biden's nominee Bill Nelson was confirmed.
[63]
The first administrator was Dr. T. Keith Glennan, appointed by Republican President
Dwight D. Eisenhower. During his term he brought together the disparate projects in
American space development research.[64]

The second administrator, James E. Webb (1961–1968), appointed by President John F.

Kennedy, was a Democrat who first publicly served under President Harry S. Truman.
In order to implement the Apollo program to achieve Kennedy's Moon landing goal by
the end of the 1960s, Webb directed major management restructuring and facility
expansion, establishing the Houston Manned Spacecraft (Johnson) Center and the
Florida Launch Operations (Kennedy) Center. Capitalizing on Kennedy's legacy,
President Lyndon Johnson kept continuity with the Apollo program by keeping Webb on
when he succeeded Kennedy in November 1963. But Webb resigned in October 1968
before Apollo achieved its goal.

Organizational structure of NASA (2015)

James Fletcher supervised early planning of the Space Shuttle program during his
first term as administrator under President Nixon.[65] He was appointed for a
second term as administrator from May 1986 through April 1989 by President Ronald
Reagan to help the agency recover from the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[66]

Former astronaut Charles Bolden served as NASA's twelfth administrator from July
2009 to January 20, 2017.[67] Bolden is one of three former astronauts who became
NASA administrators, along with Richard H. Truly (served 1989–1992) and Frederick
D. Gregory (acting, 2005).

The agency's administration is located at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, and

provides overall guidance and direction.[68] Except under exceptional
circumstances, NASA civil service employees are required to be citizens of the
United States.[69]

Facilities
Main article: NASA facilities

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NASA logo at JPL on November 17, 2020[70]

NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC provides overall guidance and political
leadership to the agency's ten field centers, through which all other facilities
are administered.[71] Four of these were inherited from NACA; two others were
transferred from the Army; and NASA commissioned and built the other four itself
shortly after its formation.

Inherited from NACA

Langley Research Center (LaRC), located in Hampton, Virginia. LaRC focuses on
aeronautical research, though the Apollo lunar lander was flight-tested at the
facility and a number of high-profile space missions have been planned and designed
on-site. LaRC was the original home of the Space Task Group.[72]

Ames Research Center (ARC) at Moffett Field was founded on December 20, 1939. The
center was named after Joseph Sweetman Ames, a founding member of the NACA. ARC is
one of NASA's 10 major field centers and is located in California's Silicon Valley.
Historically, Ames was founded to do wind-tunnel research on the aerodynamics of
propeller-driven aircraft; however, it has expanded its role to doing research and
technology in aeronautics, spaceflight, and information technology. It provides
leadership in astrobiology, small satellites, robotic lunar exploration,
intelligent/adaptive systems and thermal protection.

George W. Lewis Research Center The center's core competencies include air-
breathing and in-space propulsion and cryogenics, communications, power energy
storage and conversion, microgravity sciences, and advanced materials.

Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Facility (AFRC), established by NACA before 1946 and
located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is the home of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
(SCA), a modified Boeing 747 designed to carry a Space Shuttle orbiter back to
Kennedy Space Center after a landing at Edwards AFB. On January 16, 2014, the
center was renamed in honor of Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to walk on the
Moon.[73][74]

Langley Research Center

Ames Research Center wind tunnels

Transferred from the Army

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los
Angeles County, CA, is headquartered in the city of La Cañada Flintridge[75][76]
with a Pasadena mailing address. JPL is managed by the nearby California Institute
of Technology (Caltech). The Laboratory's primary function is the construction and
operation of robotic planetary spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and
astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating NASA's Deep Space Network.

George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), located on the Redstone Arsenal near
Huntsville, Alabama, is one of NASA's largest centers. MSFC is where the Saturn V
rocket and Spacelab were developed. Marshall is NASA's lead center for
International Space Station (ISS) design and assembly; payloads and related crew
training; and was the lead for Space Shuttle propulsion and its external tank. From
December 1959, it contained the Launch Operations Directorate, which moved to
Florida to become the Launch Operations Center on July 1, 1962.[77]

Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, California

George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama

Built by NASA

The Goddard Institute for Space Studies of Columbia University in New York City
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), located in Greenbelt, Maryland, was
commissioned by NASA on March 1, 1959. It is the largest combined organization of
scientists and engineers in the United States dedicated to increasing knowledge of
the Earth, the Solar System, and the Universe via observations from space. GSFC is
a major U.S. laboratory for developing and operating unmanned scientific
spacecraft. GSFC also operates two spaceflight tracking and data acquisition
networks (the Space Network and the Near Earth Network), develops and maintains
advanced space and Earth science data information systems, and develops satellite
systems for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). External
facilities of the GSFC include the Wallops Flight Facility, the Goddard Institute
for Space Studies at Columbia University, and the Katherine Johnson Independent
Verification and Validation Facility.

John C. Stennis Space Center, originally the "Mississippi Test Facility", is

located in Hancock County, Mississippi, on the banks of the Pearl River at the
Mississippi–Louisiana border. Commissioned on October 25, 1961, it was NASA's
largest rocket engine test facility until the end of the Space Shuttle program. It
is currently used for rocket testing by over 30 local, state, national,
international, private, and public companies and agencies. It contains the NASA
Shared Services Center.[78]

Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) is the NASA center for human spaceflight training,
research and flight control. Created on November 1, 1961, the facility consists of
a complex of 100 buildings constructed in 1962–1963 on 1,620 acres (656 ha) of land
donated by Rice University in Houston, Texas.[79] The center grew out of the Space
Task Group formed soon after the creation of NASA to co-ordinate the US human
spaceflight program. It is home to the United States Astronaut Corps and is
responsible for training astronauts from the U.S. and its international partners,
and includes the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center.[79] The center
was renamed in honor of the late U.S. president and Texas native Lyndon B. Johnson
on February 19, 1973.[80][81]

John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), located west of Cape Canaveral Space Force
Station in Florida, is one of the best known NASA facilities. Named the "Launch
Operations Center" at its creation on July 1, 1962, it was renamed in honor of the
late U.S. president on November 29, 1963,[82][83] and has been the launch site for
every United States human space flight since 1968. KSC continues to manage and
operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program from
three pads at Cape Canaveral. Its Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) is the fourth-
largest structure in the world by volume[84] and was the largest when completed in
1965.[85] A total of 13,100 people worked at the center as of 2011. Approximately
2,100 are employees of the federal government; the rest are contractors.[86]

Subordinate facilities include the Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island,

Virginia; the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana; the White Sands
Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Deep Space Network stations in
Barstow, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia.

Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston

John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida

Modern human spaceflight programs

Space Shuttle program (1972–2011)
Main article: Space Shuttle program

Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery at the start of STS-120.

The Space Shuttle became the major focus of NASA in the late 1970s and the 1980s.
Originally planned as a frequently launchable, fully reusable vehicle, the design
was changed to use an expendable external propellant tank to reduce development
cost, and four Space Shuttle orbiters were built by 1985. The first to launch,
Columbia, did so on April 12, 1981, the 20th anniversary of the first human
spaceflight.[87]

Its major components were a spaceplane orbiter with an external fuel tank and two
solid-fuel launch rockets at its side. The external tank, which was bigger than the
spacecraft itself, was the only major component that was not reused. The shuttle
could orbit in altitudes of 185–643 km (115–400 miles)[88] and carry a maximum
payload (to low orbit) of 24,400 kg (54,000 lb).[89] Missions could last from 5 to
17 days and crews could be from 2 to 8 astronauts.[88]

On 20 missions (1983–1998) the Space Shuttle carried Spacelab, designed in

cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA). Spacelab was not designed for
independent orbital flight, but remained in the Shuttle's cargo bay as the
astronauts entered and left it through an airlock.[90] On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride
became the first American woman in space, on board the Space Shuttle Challenger
STS-7 mission.[91] Another famous series of missions were the launch and later
successful repair of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 and 1993, respectively.[92]

In 1995, Russian-American interaction resumed with the Shuttle–Mir missions (1995–

1998). Once more an American vehicle docked with a Russian craft, this time a full-
fledged space station. This cooperation has continued with Russia and the United
States as two of the biggest partners in the largest space station 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.
The Shuttle fleet lost two orbiters and 14 astronauts in two disasters: Challenger
in 1986, and Columbia in 2003.[93] While the 1986 loss was mitigated by building
the Space Shuttle Endeavour from replacement parts, NASA did not build another
orbiter to replace the second loss.[93] NASA's Space Shuttle program had 135
missions when the program ended with the successful landing of the Space Shuttle
Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011. The program spanned 30 years
with over 300 astronauts sent into space.[94]

International Space Station (1993–present)

Main article: International Space Station

The International Space Station as seen from Space Shuttle Endeavour during STS-
134.
The International Space Station (ISS) combines NASA's Space Station Freedom project
with the Soviet/Russian Mir-2 station, the European Columbus station, and the
Japanese Kibō laboratory module.[95] NASA originally planned in the 1980s to
develop Freedom alone, but US budget constraints led to the merger of these
projects into a single multi-national program in 1993, managed by NASA, the Russian
Federal Space Agency (RKA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the
European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).[96][97] The
station consists of pressurized modules, external trusses, solar arrays and other
components, which were manufactured in various factories around the world, and have
been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets, and the US Space Shuttles.[95]
The on-orbit assembly began in 1998, the completion of the US Orbital Segment
occurred in 2019 and the completion of the Russian Orbital Segment occurred in
2010, though there are some debates of whether new modules should be added in the
segment. The ownership and use of the space station is established in
intergovernmental treaties and agreements[98] which divide the station into two
areas and allow Russia to retain full ownership of the Russian Orbital Segment
(with the exception of Zarya),[99][100] with the US Orbital Segment allocated
between the other international partners.[98]

Long-duration missions to the ISS are referred to as ISS Expeditions. Expedition

crew members typically spend approximately six months on the ISS.[101] The initial
expedition crew size was three, temporarily decreased to two following the Columbia
disaster. Since May 2009, expedition crew size has been six crew members.[102] Crew
size is expected to be increased to seven, the number the ISS was designed for,
once the Commercial Crew Program becomes operational.[103] The ISS has been
continuously occupied for the past 21 years and 11 days, having exceeded the
previous record held by Mir; and has been visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from
15 different nations.[104][105]

The station can be seen from the Earth with the naked eye and, as of 2021, is the
largest artificial satellite in Earth orbit with a mass and volume greater than
that of any previous space station.[106] The Soyuz spacecraft delivers crew
members, stays docked for their half-year-long missions and then returns them home.
Several uncrewed cargo spacecraft provide service to the ISS; they are the Russian
Progress spacecraft which has done so since 2000, the European Automated Transfer
Vehicle (ATV) since 2008, the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) since 2009, the
SpaceX Dragon from 2012 until 2020, and the American Cygnus spacecraft since 2013.
The Space Shuttle, before its retirement, was also used for cargo transfer and
would often switch out expedition crew members, although it did not have the
capability to remain docked for the duration of their stay. Until another US crewed
spacecraft is ready, crew members will travel to and from the International Space
Station exclusively aboard the Soyuz.[107] The highest number of people occupying
the ISS has been thirteen; this occurred three times during the late Shuttle ISS
assembly missions.[108]

On March 29, 2019, the ISS was scheduled to have its first all-female spacewalk,
but it was delayed; Jessica Meir and Christina Koch performed the first all-female
spacewalk with on October 18, as part of a lengthy series of upgrades to the ISS'
power systems and physics observatories.[109][110][111] The ISS program is expected
to continue to 2030.[112]

Constellation program (2005–2010)

Main article: Constellation program

Artist's rendering of Altair lander landed on the Moon.

While the Space Shuttle program was still suspended after the loss of Columbia,
President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration including the
retirement of the Space Shuttle after completing the International Space Station.
The plan was enacted into law by the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 and directs
NASA to develop and launch the Crew Exploration Vehicle (later called Orion) by
2010, return Americans to the Moon by 2020, land on Mars as feasible, repair the
Hubble Space Telescope, and continue scientific investigation through robotic solar
system exploration, human presence on the ISS, Earth observation, and astrophysics
research. The crewed exploration goals prompted NASA's Constellation program.[113]

On December 4, 2006, NASA announced it was planning a permanent Moon base.[114] The
goal was to start building the Moon base by 2020, and by 2024, have a fully
functional base that would allow for crew rotations and in-situ resource
utilization. However, in 2009, the Augustine Committee found the program to be on
an "unsustainable trajectory."[115] In February 2010, President Barack Obama's
administration proposed eliminating public funds for it.[116]

Commercial Crew Program (2011–present)

This section is an excerpt from Commercial Crew Program.[edit]
NASA Commercial Crew Program logo (cropped).svg

The Crew Dragon (left) approaching the ISS. Starliner (right) being stacked for
testing.
The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) provides commercially-operated crew
transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under
contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between the expeditions of the
International Space Station program. American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX began
providing service in 2020, using the Crew Dragon spacecraft, and Boeing will also
join when its Boeing Starliner spacecraft becomes operational in 2023.

The spacecraft are owned and operated by the vendor, and crew transportation is
provided to NASA as a commercial service. Each mission sends up to four astronauts
to the ISS, with an option for a fifth passenger available. Operational flights
occur approximately once every six months for missions that last for approximately
six months. A spacecraft remains docked to the ISS during its mission, and missions
usually overlap by at least a few days. Between the retirement of the Space Shuttle
in 2011 and the first operational CCP mission in 2020, NASA relied on the Soyuz
program to transport its astronauts to the ISS.

A Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched to space atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 launch

vehicle and the capsule returns to Earth via splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. The
program's first operational mission, SpaceX Crew-1, launched on 16 November 2020.
Boeing Starliner spacecraft will participate after its final test flight, launched
atop an Atlas V N22 or Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle. Instead of a splashdown, a
Starliner capsule will return on land with airbags at one of four designated sites
in the western United States.

Development of the Commercial Crew Program began in 2011 as NASA shifted from
internal development of crewed vehicles to perform ISS crew rotation to commercial
industry development of transport to the ISS. A series of open competitions over
the following two years saw successful bids from Boeing, Blue Origin, Sierra
Nevada, and SpaceX to develop proposals for ISS crew transport vehicles. In 2014,
NASA awarded separate fixed-price contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to develop their
respective systems and to fly astronauts to the ISS. Each contract required four
successful demonstrations to achieve human rating for the system: pad abort,
uncrewed orbital test, launch abort, and crewed orbital test. Operational missions
were initially planned to begin in 2017, but delays required NASA to purchase
additional seats on Soyuz spacecraft up to Soyuz MS-17.
Journey to Mars (2010–2017)
President Obama's plan was to develop American private spaceflight capabilities to
get astronauts to the International Space Station, replace Russian Soyuz capsules,
and use Orion capsules for ISS emergency escape purposes. During a speech at the
Kennedy Space Center on April 15, 2010, Obama proposed a new heavy-lift vehicle
(HLV) to replace the formerly planned Ares V.[117] In his speech, Obama called for
a crewed mission to an asteroid as soon as 2025, and a crewed mission to Mars orbit
by the mid-2030s.[117] The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 was passed by Congress
and signed into law on October 11, 2010.[118] The act officially canceled the
Constellation program.[118]

The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 required a newly designed HLV be chosen within
90 days of its passing; the launch vehicle was given the name Space Launch System.
The new law also required the construction of a beyond low earth orbit spacecraft.
[119] The Orion spacecraft, which was being developed as part of the Constellation
program, was chosen to fulfill this role.[120] The Space Launch System is planned
to launch both Orion and other necessary hardware for missions beyond low Earth
orbit.[121] The SLS is to be upgraded over time with more powerful versions. The
initial capability of SLS is required to be able to lift 70 t (150,000 lb) (later
95 t or 209,000 lb) into LEO. It is then planned to be upgraded to 105 t (231,000
lb) and then eventually to 130 t (290,000 lb).[120][122] The Orion capsule first
flew on Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1), an uncrewed test flight that was
launched on December 5, 2014, atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket.[122]

NASA undertook a feasibility study in 2012 and developed the Asteroid Redirect
Mission as an uncrewed mission to move a boulder-sized near-Earth asteroid (or
boulder-sized chunk of a larger asteroid) into lunar orbit. The mission would
demonstrate ion thruster technology, and develop techniques that could be used for
planetary defense against an asteroid collision, as well as a cargo transport to
Mars in support of a future human mission. The Moon-orbiting boulder might then
later be visited by astronauts. The Asteroid Redirect Mission was cancelled in 2017
as part of the FY2018 NASA budget, the first one under President Donald Trump.[123]

The Orion spacecraft conducted an uncrewed test launch on a Delta IV Heavy rocket
in December 2014.[124]

Artemis program (2017–present)

Main article: Artemis program
An arrowhead combined with a depiction of a trans-lunar injection trajectory forms
an "A", with an "Artemis" wordmark printed underneath
Artemis program logo
Since 2017, NASA's crewed spaceflight program has been the Artemis program, which
involves the help of U.S. commercial spaceflight companies and international
partners such as ESA, JAXA, and CSA.[125] The goal of this program is to land "the
first woman and the next man" on the lunar south pole region by 2024. Artemis would
be the first step towards the long-term goal of establishing a sustainable presence
on the Moon, laying the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy,
and eventually sending humans to Mars.

The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle was held over from the canceled Constellation
program for Artemis. Artemis 1 is the uncrewed initial launch of Space Launch
System (SLS) that would also send an Orion spacecraft on a Distant Retrograde
Orbit, which, as of May 2020, is planned to launch no earlier than November 2021.
[126]

File:Mars Exploration Zones.webm

Concepts for how the first human landing site on Mars might evolve over the course
of multiple human expeditions
NASA's next major space initiative is to be the construction of the Lunar Gateway.
This initiative is to involve the construction of a new space station, which will
have many features in common with the current International Space Station, except
that it will be in orbit about the Moon, instead of the Earth.[127] This space
station will be designed primarily for non-continuous human habitation. The first
tentative steps of returning to crewed lunar missions will be Artemis 2, which is
to include the Orion crew module, propelled by the SLS, and is to launch in 2023.
[125] This mission is to be a 10-day mission planned to briefly place a crew of
four into a Lunar flyby.[122] The construction of the Gateway would begin with the
proposed Artemis 3, which is planned to deliver a crew of four to Lunar orbit along
with the first modules of the Gateway. This mission would last for up to 30 days.
NASA plans to build full scale deep space habitats such as the Lunar Gateway and
the Nautilus-X as part of its Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships
(NextSTEP) program.[128] In 2017, NASA was directed by the congressional NASA
Transition Authorization Act of 2017 to get humans to Mars-orbit (or to the Martian
surface) by the 2030s.[129][130]

In September 2020, as a part of the Artemis program, NASA outlined a plan to send
astronauts to the Moon by 2024. The astronauts are to travel in the Orion capsule,
launched on the SLS rocket.[131]

In February 2021, it was announced that "Blue Ghost Lander", a robotic device being
constructed in Cedar Park, Texas, will be sent to the moon's Mare Crisium in 2023
to help prepare for NASA's goal of returning to the Lunar surface.[132][133]

In November 2021, it was announced that the goal of landing sending astronauts to
the Moon by 2024 had slipped to No Earlier Than 2025 due to numerous factors.

Satellites, probes, rovers, launch vehicles

Main articles: List of NASA missions and List of uncrewed NASA missions
File:NASA 60th- What’s Out There.webm
Video of many of the uncrewed missions used to explore the outer reaches of space
NASA has conducted many uncrewed and robotic spaceflight programs throughout its
history. Uncrewed robotic programs launched the first American artificial
satellites into Earth orbit for scientific and communications purposes, and sent
scientific probes to explore the planets of the solar system, starting with Venus
and Mars, and including "grand tours" of the outer planets. More than 1,000
uncrewed missions have been designed to explore the Earth and the solar system.
[134]

Earth, Moon, and L2 point

Besides exploration, communication satellites have also been launched by NASA.[135]
The spacecraft have been launched directly from Earth or from orbiting space
shuttles, which could either deploy the satellite itself, or with a rocket stage to
take it farther.

The first US uncrewed satellite was Explorer 1, which started as an ABMA/JPL

project during the early part of the Space Race. It was launched in January 1958,
two months after Sputnik. At the creation of NASA, the Explorer project was
transferred to the agency and still continues to this day. Its missions have been
focusing on the Earth and the Sun, measuring magnetic fields and the solar wind,
among other aspects.[136] A more recent Earth satellite, not related to the
Explorer program, was the Hubble Space Telescope, which was brought into orbit in
1990.[137]

Cygnus and Cargo Dragon are used to resupply the International Space Station (ISS)
as part of NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program as of 2020. Cygnus is
manufactured by Northrop Grumman and launched on the Antares rocket. Cargo Dragon
is manufactured by SpaceX and launched on the Block 5 variant of Falcon 9. SpaceX
Dragon, also launched on Falcon 9, was used to resupply the ISS from 2010 to 2020.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is currently scheduled to launch in November
2021 on an Ariane 5 rocket.[138] It will be placed in a halo orbit circling the
Sun-Earth L2 point.[139]

Inner solar system (including Mars)

William H. Pickering, (center) JPL Director, President John F. Kennedy, (right).

NASA Administrator James E. Webb (background) discussing the Mariner program, with
a model presented.
The inner Solar System has been made the goal of at least four uncrewed programs.
The first was Mariner in the 1960s and 1970s, which made multiple visits to Venus
and Mars and one to Mercury. Probes launched under the Mariner program were also
the first to make a planetary flyby (Mariner 2), to take the first pictures from
another planet (Mariner 4), the first planetary orbiter (Mariner 9), and the first
to make a gravity assist maneuver (Mariner 10). This is a technique where the
satellite takes advantage of the gravity and velocity of planets to reach its
destination.[140]

The first successful landing on Mars was made by Viking 1 in 1976. Twenty years
later a rover was landed on Mars by Mars Pathfinder.[141] On November 26, 2011,
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission was successfully launched for Mars.
Curiosity successfully landed on Mars on August 6, 2012, and subsequently began its
search for evidence of past or present life on Mars.[142][143][144] On the horizon
of NASA's plans is the MAVEN spacecraft as part of the Mars Scout Program to study
the atmosphere of Mars.[145]

NASA's ongoing investigations include in-depth surveys of Mars (Perseverance and

InSight).

Outer solar system

Outside Mars, Jupiter was first visited by Pioneer 10 in 1973. More than 20 years
later Galileo sent a probe into the planet's atmosphere, and became the first
spacecraft to orbit the planet.[146] Pioneer 11 became the first spacecraft to
visit Saturn in 1979, with Voyager 2 making the first (and so far only) visits to
Uranus and Neptune in 1986 and 1989, respectively. The first spacecraft to leave
the solar system was Pioneer 10 in 1983. For a time it was the most distant
spacecraft, but it has since been surpassed by both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.[147]

Pioneers 10 and 11 and both Voyager probes carry messages from the Earth to
extraterrestrial life.[148][149] Communication can be difficult with deep space
travel. For instance, it took about three hours for a radio signal to reach the New
Horizons spacecraft when it was more than halfway to Pluto.[150] Contact with
Pioneer 10 was lost in 2003. Both Voyager probes continue to operate as they
explore the outer boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space.[151]

The New Horizons mission to Pluto was launched in 2006 and successfully performed a
flyby of Pluto on July 14, 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 flyby. Other active spacecraft are Juno for Jupiter and Dawn
for the asteroid belt. NASA continued to support in situ exploration beyond the
asteroid belt, including Pioneer and Voyager traverses into the unexplored trans-
Pluto region, and gas giant orbiters Galileo (1989–2003), Cassini (1997–2017), and
Juno (2011–present).

Near-Earth object detection

Further information: Near-Earth object
In 1994, there was a Congressional directive to find near-Earth objects (NEOs)
larger than 1 kilometer, and 90% of 1 kilometer sized asteroids are estimated to
have been found by 2010.[152]

In 1999, NASA visited 433 Eros with the NEAR spacecraft which entered its orbit in
2000, closely imaging the asteroid with various instruments at that time.[153] From
the 1990s NASA has run many NEO detection programs from Earth bases observatories,
greatly increasing the number of objects that have been detected. However, many
asteroids are very dark and the ones that are near the Sun are much harder to
detect from Earth-based telescopes which observe at night, and thus face away from
the Sun. NEOs inside Earth orbit only reflect a part of light also rather than
potentially a "full Moon" when they are behind the Earth and fully lit by the Sun.

In 2005, the US Congress mandated NASA to achieve by the year 2020 specific levels
of search completeness for discovering, cataloging, and characterizing dangerous
asteroids larger than 140 meters (460 ft) (Act of 2005, H.R. 1022; 109th),[154] but
no new funds were appropriated for this effort.[155] As of January 2019, it is
estimated about 40% of the NEOs of this size have been found, although since by its
nature the exact amount of NEOs are unknown the calculations are based on
predictions of how many there could be.[156]

One issue with NEO prediction is trying to estimate how many more are likely to be
found. In 2000, NASA reduced its estimate of the number of existing near-Earth
asteroids over one kilometer in diameter from 1,000–2,000 to 500–1,000.[157][158]
Shortly thereafter, the LINEAR survey provided an alternative estimate of 1,227+170
−90.[159] In 2011, on the basis of NEOWISE observations, the estimated number of
one-kilometer NEAs was narrowed to 981±19 (of which 93% had been discovered at the
time), while the number of NEAs larger than 140 meters across was estimated at
13,200±1,900.[160][161] The NEOWISE estimate differed from other estimates in
assuming a slightly lower average asteroid albedo, which produces larger estimated
diameters for the same asteroid brightness. This resulted in 911 then known
asteroids at least 1 km across, as opposed to the 830 then listed by CNEOS.[162] In
2017, using an improved statistical method, two studies reduced the estimated
number of NEAs brighter than absolute magnitude 17.75 (approximately over one
kilometer in diameter) to 921±20.[163][164] The estimated number of asteroids
brighter than absolute magnitude of 22.0 (approximately over 140 m across) rose to
27,100±2,200, double the WISE estimate,[164] of which about a third are known as of
2018. A problem with estimating the number of NEOs is that detections are
influenced by a number of factors.[165]

NASA turned the infrared space survey telescope WISE back on in 2013 to look for
NEOs, and it found some during the course of its operation. NEOcam competed in the
highly competitive Discovery program, which became more so due to a low mission
rate in the 2010s.

Due to the opposition effect over half (53%) of the discoveries of Near Earth
objects were made in 3.8% of the sky, in a 22.5° cone facing directly away from the
Sun, and the vast majority (87%) were made in 15% of the sky, in a 45° cone facing
away from the Sun.[166]
Research
Main article: NASA research
For technologies funded or otherwise supported by NASA, see NASA spinoff
technologies.
NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate conducts aeronautics research.

NASA has made use of technologies such as the multi-mission radioisotope

thermoelectric generator (MMRTG), which is a type of radioisotope thermoelectric
generator used to power spacecraft.[167] Shortages of the required plutonium-238
have curtailed deep space missions since the turn of the millennium.[168] An
example of a spacecraft that was not developed because of a shortage of this
material was New Horizons 2.[168]

The Earth science research program was created and first funded in the 1980s under
the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.[169][170]

NASA started an annual competition in 2014 named Cubes in Space.[171] It is jointly

organized by NASA and the global education company I Doodle Learning, with the
objective of teaching school students aged 11–18 to design and build scientific
experiments to be launched into space on a NASA rocket or balloon. On June 21, 2017
the world's smallest satellite, KalamSAT, was launched.[172]

NASA also researches and publishes on climate change.[173] Its statements concur
with the global scientific consensus that the global climate is warming.[174] Bob
Walker, who has advised US President Donald Trump on space issues, has advocated
that NASA should focus on space exploration and that its climate study operations
should be transferred to other agencies such as NOAA. Former NASA atmospheric
scientist J. Marshall Shepherd countered that Earth science study was built into
NASA's mission at its creation in the 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act.[175]
NASA won the 2020 Webby People's Voice Award for Green in the category Web.[176]

NASA contracted a third party to study the probability of using Free Space Optics
(FSO) to communicate with Optical (laser) Stations on the Ground (OGS) called
laser-com RF networks for satellite communications.[177]

On July 29, 2020, NASA requested American universities to propose new technologies
for extracting water from the lunar soil and developing power systems. The idea
will help the space agency conduct sustainable exploration of the Moon.[178]

Environmental impact
The exhaust gases produced by rocket propulsion systems, both in Earth's atmosphere
and in space, can adversely effect the Earth's environment. Some hypergolic rocket
propellants, such as hydrazine, are highly toxic prior to combustion, but decompose
into less toxic compounds after burning. Rockets using hydrocarbon fuels, such as
kerosene, release carbon dioxide and soot in their exhaust.[179] However, carbon
dioxide emissions are insignificant compared to those from other sources; on
average, the United States consumed 802,620,000 US gallons (3.0382×109 L) of liquid
fuels per day in 2014, while a single Falcon 9 rocket first stage burns around
25,000 US gallons (95,000 L) of kerosene fuel per launch.[180][181] Even if a
Falcon 9 were launched every single day, it would only represent 0.006% of liquid
fuel consumption (and carbon dioxide emissions) for that day. Additionally, the
exhaust from LOx- and LH2- fueled engines, like the SSME, is almost entirely water
vapor.[182] NASA addressed environmental concerns with its canceled Constellation
program in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act in 2011.[183] In
contrast, ion engines use harmless noble gases like xenon for propulsion.[184][185]

An example of NASA's environmental efforts is the NASA Sustainability Base.

Additionally, the Exploration Sciences Building was awarded the LEED Gold rating in
2010.[186] On May 8, 2003, the 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.[187]
In 2018, NASA along with other companies including Sensor Coating Systems, Pratt &
Whitney, Monitor Coating and UTRC launched the project CAUTION (CoAtings for Ultra
High Temperature detectION). This project aims to enhance the temperature range of
the Thermal History Coating up to 1,500 °C (2,730 °F) and beyond. The final goal of
this project is improving the safety of jet engines as well as increasing
efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions.[188]

Goals and directives

Further information: Space policy of the United States
Some of NASA's main directives have been the landing of a crewed spacecraft on the
Moon, the designing and construction of the Space Shuttle, and efforts to construct
a large, crewed space station. Typically, the major directives originated from the
intersection of scientific interest and advice, political interests, federal
funding concerns, and the public interest, which all together brought varying waves
of effort, often heavily swayed by technical developments, funding changes, and
world events. For example, in the 1980s, the Reagan administration announced a
directive with a major push to build a crewed space station, given the name Space
Station Freedom.[189] But, when the Cold War ended, Russia, the United States, and
other international partners came together to design and build the International
Space Station.

In the 2010s, major shifts in directives include the retirement of the Space
Shuttle, and the later development of a new crewed heavy-lift rocket, the Space
Launch System. Missions for the new Space Launch System have varied, but overall,
NASA's directives are similar to the Space Shuttle program as the primary goal and
desire is human spaceflight. Additionally, NASA's Space Exploration Initiative of
the 1980s opened new avenues of exploration focused on other galaxies.

For the coming decades, NASA's focus has gradually shifting towards eventual
exploration of Mars.[190] One of the technological options focused on was the
Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM).[190] ARM had largely been defunded in 2017, but
the key technologies developed for ARM would be utilized for future exploration,
notably on a solar electric propulsion system.[123][190]

Longer project execution timelines leave future executive administration officials

to execute on a directive, which can lead to directional mismanagement.[vague]

Previously, in the early 2000s, NASA worked towards a strategic plan called the
Constellation Program, but the program was defunded in the early 2010s.[191][192]
[193][194] In the 1990s, NASA's administration adopted an approach to planning
coined "Faster, Better, Cheaper".[195]

NASA Authorization Act of 2017

The NASA Authorization Act of 2017, which included $19.5 billion in funding for
that fiscal year, directed NASA to get humans near or on the surface of Mars by the
early 2030s.[196]

Though the agency is independent, the survival or discontinuation of projects can

depend directly on the will of the President.[197]

Space Policy Directive 1

In December 2017, on the 45th anniversary of the last crewed mission to the Moon's
surface, President Donald Trump approved a directive that includes a lunar mission
on the pathway to Mars and beyond.[190]

The directive I'm signing today will refocus America's space program on human
exploration and discovery. It marks an important step in returning American
astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972 for long-term exploration and
use. This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will
establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars. And perhaps, someday, to
many worlds beyond.

— President Donald Trump, 2017[198]

New NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine addressed this directive in an August 2018
speech where he focused on the sustainability aspects—going to the Moon to stay—
that are explicit in the directive, including taking advantage of US commercial
space capability that did not exist even five years ago, which have driven down
costs and increased access to space.[199]

Goals
Since 2011, NASA's strategic goals have been[200]

Extend and sustain human activities across the Solar System

Expand scientific understanding of the Earth and the universe
Create innovative new space technologies
Advance aeronautics research
Enable program and institutional capabilities to conduct NASA's aeronautics and
space activities
Share NASA with the public, educators, and students to provide opportunities to
participate
Budget
Main article: Budget of NASA

NASA's budget from 1958 to 2012 as a percentage of federal budget

An artist's conception, from NASA, of an astronaut planting a US flag on Mars. A

human mission to Mars has been discussed as a possible NASA mission since the
1960s.
NASA's share of the total federal budget peaked at approximately 4.41% in 1966
during the Apollo program, then rapidly declined to approximately 1% in 1975, and
stayed around that level through 1998.[197][201] The percentage then gradually
dropped, until leveling off again at around half a percent in 2006 (estimated in
2012 at 0.48% of the federal budget).[202] In a March 2012 hearing of the United
States Senate Science Committee, science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson testified
that "Right now, NASA's annual budget is half a penny on your tax dollar. For twice
that—a penny on a dollar—we can transform the country from a sullen, dispirited
nation, weary of economic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed its 20th century
birthright to dream of tomorrow."[203][204]

Despite this, public perception of NASA's budget differs significantly: a 1997 poll
indicated that most Americans believed that 20% of the federal budget went to NASA.
[205]

For Fiscal Year 2015, NASA received an appropriation of US$18.01 billion from
Congress—$549 million more than requested and approximately $350 million more than
the 2014 NASA budget passed by Congress.[206]

In Fiscal Year 2016, NASA received $19.3 billion.[207]

President Donald Trump signed the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017 in
March, which set the 2017 budget at around $19.5 billion.[207] The budget is also
reported as $19.3 billion for 2017, with $20.7 billion proposed for FY2018.[208]
[209]

Examples of some proposed FY2018 budgets:[209]

Exploration: $4.79 billion

Planetary science: $2.23 billion
Earth science: $1.92 billion
Aeronautics: $0.685 billion
Media
NASAcast
NASAcast is the official audio and video podcast of the NASA website. Created in
late 2005, the podcast service contains the latest audio and video features from
the NASA web site, including NASA TV's This Week at NASA and educational materials
produced by NASA. Additional NASA podcasts, such as Science@NASA, are also featured
and give subscribers an in-depth look at content by subject matter.[210]

NASA EDGE
NASA EDGE is a video podcast which explores different missions, technologies and
projects developed by NASA. The program was released by NASA on March 18, 2007,
and, as of August 2020, there have been 200 vodcasts produced. It is a public
outreach vodcast sponsored by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and
based out of the Exploration and Space Operations Directorate at Langley Research
Center in Hampton, Virginia. NASA EDGE takes an insiders look at current projects
and technologies from NASA facilities around the United States, and it is depicted
through personal interviews, on-scene broadcasts, computer animations, and personal
interviews with top scientists and engineers at NASA. The show explores the
contributions NASA has made to society as well as the progress of current projects
in materials and space exploration. NASA EDGE vodcasts can be downloaded from the
NASA website and from iTunes.

Cast and crew

Chris Giersch - host
Blair Allen - co-host and senior producer[211]
Franklin Fitzgerald - news anchor and "everyman"
Jaqueline Mirielle Cortez - special co-host
Ron Beard - director and "set therapist"
Don Morrison - audio/video engineer
Ryan Darden - Editor[212]
Reception
In its first year of production, the show was downloaded over 450,000 times. As of
February 2010, the average download rate is more than 420,000 per month, with over
one million downloads in December 2009 and January 2010.[213]

Interactive projects

NASA EDGE broadcasting live from White Sands Missile Range in 2010
NASA and the NASA EDGE have developed interactive programs designed to complement
the vodcast. The Lunar Electric Rover App allows users to drive a simulated Lunar
Electric Rover between objectives, and it provides information about and images of
the vehicle.[214] The NASA EDGE Widget provides a graphical user interface for
accessing NASA EDGE vodcasts, image galleries, and the program's Twitter feed, as
well as a live NASA news feed.[215]

Miscellaneous
NASA Advisory Council
In response to the Apollo 1 accident, which killed three astronauts 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 the aftermath of the Shuttle Columbia disaster, Congress required that the ASAP
submit an annual report to the NASA Administrator and to Congress.[216] By 1971,
NASA had also established the Space Program Advisory Council and the Research and
Technology Advisory Council to provide the administrator with advisory committee
support. In 1977, the latter two were combined to form the NASA Advisory Council
(NAC).[217] The NASA Authorization Act of 2014 reaffirmed the importance of ASAP.
Use of the metric system
US law requires the International System of Units to be used in all U.S. Government
programs, "except where impractical".[218]

In 1969, the Apollo 11 landed on the Moon using a mix of United States customary
units and metric units. In the 1980s, NASA started the transition towards the
metric system, but was still using both systems in the 1990s.[219][220] On
September 23, 1999, a unit mixup between US and SI units resulted in the loss of
the Mars Climate Orbiter.[221]

In August 2007, NASA stated that all future missions and explorations of the Moon
would be done entirely using the SI system. This was done to improve cooperation
with space agencies of other countries that already use the metric system.[222]

As of 2007, NASA is predominantly working with SI units, but some projects still
use English units, and some, including the International Space Station, use a mix
of both.[223]

Partnership with the United States Space Force

Main article: United States Space Force

Space Force Delta

The United States Space Force (USSF) is the space service branch of the United
States Armed Forces, while the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for civil
spaceflight. NASA and the Space Force's predecessors in the Air Force have a long-
standing cooperative relationship, with the Space Force supporting NASA launches
out of Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and Vandenberg
Space Force Base, to include range support and rescue operations from Task Force
45.[224] NASA and the Space Force also partner on matters such as defending Earth
from asteroids.[225] Space Force members can be NASA astronauts, with Colonel
Michael S. Hopkins, the commander of SpaceX Crew-1, commissioned into the Space
Force from the International Space Station on 18 December 2020.[226][227][228] In
September 2020, the Space Force and NASA signed a memorandum of understanding
formally acknowledging the joint role of both agencies. This new memorandum
replaced a similar document signed in 2006 between NASA and Air Force Space
Command.[229][230]

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

This section is an excerpt from Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on science and
technology § NASA.[edit]
NASA announced the temporary closure of all visitor complexes at its field centers
until further notice and asked all non-critical personnel to work from home if
possible. Production and manufacturing of the Space Launch System at the Michoud
Assembly Facility has been halted,[231][232] and further delays are expected for
the James Webb Space Telescope,[233] although work resumed on June 3, 2020.[234]

The majority of Johnson Space Center personnel have transitioned to

telecommunicating, and mission-critical personnel on the International Space
Station have been ordered to reside in the mission control room until further
notice. Station operations are relatively unaffected, but astronauts on new
expeditions are subject to longer more stringent pre-flight quarantine.[235]
Gallery
Observations

Various nebulae observed from a NASA space telescope

1 Ceres

Pluto

Past and current spacecraft

Hardware comparison of Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury[note 3]

Hubble Space Telescope, astronomy observatory in Earth orbit since 1990. Also
visited by the Space Shuttle

Curiosity rover, roving Mars since 2012

Perseverance rover

Planned spacecraft

Orion spacecraft

Space Launch System rocket

James Webb Space Telescope

Lunar Gateway space station

Concepts
NASA has developed oftentimes elaborate plans and technology concepts, some of
which become worked into real plans.

Concept of cargo transport from Space Shuttle to Nuclear Shuttle, 1960s

Space Tug concept, 1970s

Vision mission for an interstellar precursor spacecraft by NASA, 2000s

Langley's Mars Ice Dome design for a Mars habitat, 2010s

See also
flag United States portal
icon Politics portal
Spaceflight portal
List of crewed spacecraft – Wikipedia list article
List of United States rockets
Articles about NASA
Astronomy Picture of the Day – website
List of NASA aircraft – Wikipedia list article
NASA Advanced Space Transportation Program
NASA Art Program
NASA Research Park – research park near San Jose, California
NASA TV – Television channels of NASA
NASAcast
TechPort (NASA) – Technology Portfolio System
Related agencies
Department of Defense Manned Space Flight Support Office
European Space Agency – European organisation dedicated to the exploration of space
Indian Space Research Organisation – India's national space agency
Roscosmos – Space agency of Russia
United States Space Force – Space service branch of the United States Armed Forces
Explanatory notes
NASA is an independent agency that is not a part of any executive department, but
reports directly to the President.[5][6]
The descent stage of the LM stayed on the Moon after landing, while the ascent
stage brought the two astronauts back to the CSM and then fell back to the Moon.
From left to right: Launch vehicle of Apollo (Saturn 5), Gemini (Titan 2) and
Mercury (Atlas). Left, top-down: Spacecraft of Apollo, Gemini and Mercury. The
Saturn IB and Mercury-Redstone launch vehicles are left out.
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Further reading
Library resources about
NASA
Resources in your library
Resources in other libraries
Alexander, Joseph K. Science Advice to NASA: Conflict, Consensus, Partnership,
Leadership (2019) excerpt
Bizony, Piers et al. The NASA Archives. 60 Years in Space (2019)
Brady, Kevin M. "NASA Launches Houston into Orbit How America's Space Program
Contributed to Southeast Texas's Economic Growth, Scientific Development, and
Modernization during the Late Twentieth Century." Journal of the West (2018) 57#4
pp 13–54.
Bromberg, Joan Lisa. NASA and the Space Industry (Johns Hopkins UP, 1999).
Clemons, Jack. Safely to Earth: The Men and Women Who Brought the Astronauts Home
(2018) excerpt
Dick, Steven J., and Roger D. Launius, eds. Critical Issues in the History of
Spaceflight (NASA, 2006)
Launius, Roger D. "Eisenhower, Sputnik, and the Creation of NASA." Prologue-
Quarterly of the National Archives 28.2 (1996): 127-143.
Pyle, Rod. Space 2.0: How Private Spaceflight, a Resurgent NASA, and International
Partners are Creating a New Space Age (2019), overview of space exploration excerpt
Spencer, Brett. "The Book and the Rocket: The Symbiotic Relationship between
American Public Libraries and the Space Program, 1950–2015," Information & Culture
51, no. 4 (2016): 550–82.
Weinzierl, Matthew. "Space, the final economic frontier." Journal of Economic
Perspectives 32.2 (2018): 173-92. online, review of economics literature
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NASA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search
For other uses, see NASA (disambiguation).
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
A blue sphere with stars, a yellow planet with a white moon; a red chevron
representing wings, and an orbiting spacecraft; surrounded by a white border with
"NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION U.S.A." in red letters
NASA seal
A blue sphere with stars, white letters N-A-S-A in Helvetica font; a red chevron
representing wings, and an orbiting spacecraft
NASA "meatball" insignia
A red line forming stylized letters N-A-S-A
NASA "worm" logotype
NASA HQ Building.jpg
NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Agency overview
Abbreviation NASA
Formed July 29, 1958; 63 years ago
Preceding agency
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (1915–1958)[1]
Type Space agency
Jurisdiction United States Federal Government
Headquarters Washington, D.C.
38°52′59″N 77°0′59″WCoordinates: 38°52′59″N 77°0′59″W
Motto For the Benefit of All[2]
Administrator Bill Nelson
Deputy Administrator Pamela Melroy
Primary spaceports
John F. Kennedy Space CenterCape Canaveral Space Force StationVandenberg Space
Force Base
Owner United States
Employees 17,373 (2020)[3]
Annual budget Increase US$22.629 billion (2020)[4]
Website NASA.gov
Part of a series on the
United States Space Program
NASA logo.svgUnited States Space Force logo.svg
NASAU.S. Space Force
Human spaceflight programs
Robotic spaceflight programs
NASA Astronaut Corps
Spaceports
Space launch vehicles
National security space
Civil space
Commercial space industry
vte
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA /ˈnæsə/) is an independent
agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civilian space program,
as well as aeronautics and space research.[note 1]

NASA was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency was to have a distinctly civilian orientation,
encouraging peaceful applications in space science.[7][8][9] Since its
establishment, most US space exploration efforts have been led by NASA, including
the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space
Shuttle. NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the
development of the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System, Commercial Crew
vehicles, and the planned Lunar Gateway space station. The agency is also
responsible for the Launch Services Program, which provides oversight of launch
operations and countdown management for uncrewed NASA launches.

NASA's science is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing
System;[10] advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission
Directorate's Heliophysics Research Program;[11] exploring bodies throughout the
Solar System with advanced robotic spacecraft such as New Horizons;[12] and
researching astrophysics topics, such as the Big Bang, through the Great
Observatories and associated programs.[13]

Contents
1 History
1.1 Creation
1.1.1 Insignia
1.2 Foundational human spaceflight
1.2.1 X-15 program (1954–1968)
1.2.2 Project Mercury (1958–1963)
1.2.3 Project Gemini (1961–1966)
1.2.4 Project Apollo (1960–1972)
1.2.5 Skylab (1965–1979)
1.2.6 Apollo-Soyuz (1972–1975)
2 Leadership
3 Facilities
3.1 Inherited from NACA
3.2 Transferred from the Army
3.3 Built by NASA
4 Modern human spaceflight programs
4.1 Space Shuttle program (1972–2011)
4.2 International Space Station (1993–present)
4.3 Constellation program (2005–2010)
4.4 Commercial Crew Program (2011–present)
4.5 Journey to Mars (2010–2017)
4.6 Artemis program (2017–present)
5 Satellites, probes, rovers, launch vehicles
5.1 Earth, Moon, and L2 point
5.2 Inner solar system (including Mars)
5.3 Outer solar system
6 Near-Earth object detection
7 Research
8 Environmental impact
9 Goals and directives
9.1 NASA Authorization Act of 2017
9.2 Space Policy Directive 1
9.3 Goals
10 Budget
11 Media
11.1 NASAcast
11.2 NASA EDGE
11.2.1 Cast and crew
11.2.2 Reception
11.2.3 Interactive projects
12 Miscellaneous
12.1 NASA Advisory Council
12.2 Use of the metric system
12.3 Partnership with the United States Space Force
12.4 Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
13 Gallery
13.1 Observations
13.2 Past and current spacecraft
13.3 Planned spacecraft
13.4 Concepts
14 See also
14.1 Articles about NASA
14.2 Related agencies
15 Explanatory notes
16 References
17 Sources
18 Further reading
19 External links
History
Creation
Main article: Creation of NASA
File:NASA 60th- How It All Began.webm
Short documentary about NASA
Beginning in 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) began
experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1.[14] In the early
1950s, there was challenge to launch an artificial satellite for the International
Geophysical Year (1957–1958). An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard.
After the Soviet space program's launch of the world's first artificial 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 national security and technological leadership (known as the "Sputnik crisis"),
urged immediate and swift action; President Dwight D. Eisenhower counseled more
deliberate measures. The result was a consensus that the White House forged among
key interest groups, including scientists committed to basic research; the Pentagon
which had to match the Soviet military achievement; corporate America looking for
new business; and a strong new trend in public opinion looking up to space
exploration.[15]

On January 12, 1958, NACA organized a "Special Committee on Space Technology,"

headed by Guyford Stever.[9] On January 14, 1958, NACA Director Hugh Dryden
published "A National Research Program for Space Technology," stating,[16]

It is of great urgency and importance to our country both from consideration of our
prestige as a nation as well as military necessity that this challenge [Sputnik] be
met by an energetic program of research and development for the conquest of
space ... It is accordingly proposed that the scientific research be the
responsibility of a national civilian agency ... NACA is capable, by rapid
extension and expansion of its effort, of providing leadership in space technology.
[16]

While this new federal agency would conduct all non-military space activity, the
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was created in February 1958 to develop
space technology for military application.[17]

On July 29, 1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act,
establishing NASA. When it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA absorbed the
43-year-old NACA intact; its 8,000 employees, an annual budget of US$100 million,
three major research laboratories (Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Ames
Aeronautical Laboratory, and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory) and two small test
facilities.[18] Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States
Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA. A significant contributor to
NASA's entry into the Space Race with the Soviet Union was the technology from the
German rocket program led by Wernher von Braun, who was now working for the Army
Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), which in turn incorporated the technology of
American scientist Robert Goddard's earlier works.[19] Earlier research efforts
within the US Air Force[18] and many of ARPA's early space programs were also
transferred to NASA.[20] In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, a contractor facility operated by the California Institute
of Technology.[18]

Insignia
Main article: NASA insignia
The NASA seal was approved by Eisenhower in 1959, and slightly modified by
President John F. Kennedy in 1961.[21][22] NASA's first logo was designed by the
head of Lewis' Research Reports Division, James Modarelli, as a simplification of
the 1959 seal.[23] In 1975, the original logo was first dubbed "the meatball" to
distinguish it from the newly designed "worm" logo which replaced it. The
"meatball" returned to official use in 1992.[23] The "worm" was brought out of
retirement in 2020 by administrator Jim Bridenstine.[24]

Foundational human spaceflight

X-15 program (1954–1968)
Main article: North American X-15

X-15 in powered flight

NASA inherited NACA's X-15 experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research
aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force and Navy. Three planes
were built starting in 1955. The X-15 was drop-launched from the wing of one of two
NASA Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses, NB52A tail number 52-003, and NB52B, tail number
52-008 (known as the Balls 8). Release took place at an altitude of about 45,000
feet (14 km) and a speed of about 500 miles per hour (805 km/h).[25]

Twelve pilots were selected for the program from the Air Force, Navy, and NACA. A
total of 199 flights were made between June 1959 and December 1968, resulting in
the official world record for the highest speed ever reached by a crewed powered
aircraft (current as of 2014), and a maximum speed of Mach 6.72, 4,519 miles per
hour (7,273 km/h).[26] The altitude record for X-15 was 354,200 feet (107.96 km).
[27] Eight of the pilots were awarded Air Force astronaut wings for flying above
260,000 feet (80 km), and two flights by Joseph A. Walker exceeded 100 kilometers
(330,000 ft), qualifying as spaceflight according to the International Aeronautical
Federation. The X-15 program employed mechanical techniques used in the later
crewed spaceflight programs, including reaction control system jets for controlling
the orientation of a spacecraft, space suits, and horizon definition for
navigation.[27] The reentry and landing data collected were valuable to NASA for
designing the Space Shuttle.[28]

Project Mercury (1958–1963)

Main article: Project Mercury

L. Gordon Cooper, photographed by a slow-scan television camera aboard Faith 7,

1963
In 1958, NASA formed an engineering group, the Space Task Group, to manage their
human spaceflight programs under the direction of Robert Gilruth. Their earliest
programs were conducted under the pressure of the Cold War competition between the
U.S. and the Soviet Union. NASA inherited the US Air Force's Man in Space Soonest
program, which considered many crewed spacecraft designs ranging from rocket planes
like the X-15, to small ballistic space capsules.[29] By 1958, the space plane
concepts were eliminated in favor of the ballistic capsule,[30] and NASA renamed it
Project Mercury. The first seven astronauts were selected among candidates from the
Navy, Air Force and Marine test pilot programs. On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan
Shepard became the first American in space aboard a capsule he named Freedom 7,
launched on a Redstone booster on a 15-minute ballistic (suborbital) flight.[31]
John Glenn became the first American to be launched into orbit, on an Atlas launch
vehicle on February 20, 1962, aboard Friendship 7.[32] Glenn completed three
orbits, after which three more orbital flights were made, culminating in L. Gordon
Cooper's 22-orbit flight Faith 7, May 15–16, 1963.[33] Katherine Johnson, Mary
Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan were three of the human computers doing calculations
on trajectories during the Space Race.[34][35][36] Johnson was well known for doing
trajectory calculations for John Glenn's mission in 1962, where she was running the
same equations by hand that were being run on the computer.[34]

Mercury's competition from the Soviet Union (USSR) was the single-pilot Vostok
spacecraft. They sent the first man in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, into a single
Earth orbit aboard Vostok 1 in April 1961, one month before Shepard's flight.[37]
In August 1962, they achieved an almost four-day record flight with Andriyan
Nikolayev aboard Vostok 3, and also conducted a concurrent Vostok 4 mission
carrying Pavel Popovich.

Project Gemini (1961–1966)

Main article: Project Gemini

Richard Gordon performs a spacewalk to attach a tether to the Agena Target Vehicle
on Gemini 11, 1966
Based on studies to grow the Mercury spacecraft capabilities to long-duration
flights, developing space rendezvous techniques, and precision Earth landing,
Project Gemini was started as a two-man program in 1961 to overcome the Soviets'
lead and to support the Apollo crewed lunar landing program, adding extravehicular
activity (EVA) and rendezvous and docking to its objectives. The first crewed
Gemini flight, Gemini 3, was flown by Gus Grissom and John Young on March 23, 1965.
[38] Nine missions followed in 1965 and 1966, demonstrating an endurance mission of
nearly fourteen days, rendezvous, docking, and practical EVA, and gathering medical
data on the effects of weightlessness on humans.[39][40]

Under the direction of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the USSR competed with
Gemini by converting their Vostok spacecraft into a two- or three-man Voskhod. They
succeeded in launching two crewed flights before Gemini's first flight, achieving a
three-cosmonaut flight in 1964 and the first EVA in 1965. After this, the program
was canceled, and Gemini caught up while spacecraft designer Sergei Korolev
developed the Soyuz spacecraft, their answer to Apollo.

Project Apollo (1960–1972)

Main article: Apollo program

Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, 1969

The U.S public's perception of the Soviet lead in the Space Race (by putting the
first man into space) motivated President John F. Kennedy[41] to ask the Congress
on May 25, 1961, to commit the federal government to a program to land a man on the
Moon by the end of the 1960s, which effectively launched the Apollo program.[42]

Apollo was one of the most expensive American scientific programs ever. It cost
more than $20 billion in 1960s dollars[43] or an estimated $225 billion in present-
day US dollars.[44] (In comparison, the Manhattan Project cost roughly $28.8
billion, accounting for inflation.)[44][45] It used the Saturn rockets as launch
vehicles, which were far bigger than the rockets built for previous projects.[46]
The spacecraft was also bigger; it had two main parts, the combined command and
service module (CSM) and the Apollo Lunar Module (LM). The LM was to be left on the
Moon and only the command module (CM) containing the three astronauts would return
to Earth.[note 2]

The second crewed mission, Apollo 8, brought astronauts for the first time in a
flight around the Moon in December 1968.[47] Shortly before, the Soviets had sent
an uncrewed spacecraft around the Moon.[48] On the next two missions docking
maneuvers that were needed for the Moon landing were practiced[49][50] and then
finally the Moon landing was made on the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969.[51]
The first person to walk on the Moon was Neil Armstrong, who was followed 19
minutes later by Buzz Aldrin, while Michael Collins orbited above. Five subsequent
Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last in December 1972.
Throughout these six Apollo spaceflights, twelve men walked on the Moon. These
missions returned a wealth of scientific data and 381.7 kilograms (842 lb) of lunar
samples. Topics covered by experiments performed included soil mechanics,
meteoroids, seismology, heat flow, lunar ranging, magnetic fields, and solar wind.
[52][page needed] The Moon landing marked the end of the space race; and as a
gesture, Armstrong mentioned mankind when he stepped down on the Moon.[53]

Apollo set major milestones in human spaceflight. It stands alone in sending crewed
missions beyond low Earth orbit, and landing humans on another celestial body.[54]
Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to orbit another celestial body, while
Apollo 17 marked the last moonwalk and the last crewed mission beyond low Earth
orbit. The program spurred advances in many areas of technology peripheral to
rocketry and crewed spaceflight, including avionics, telecommunications, and
computers. Apollo sparked interest in many fields of engineering and left many
physical facilities and machines developed for the program as landmarks. Many
objects and artifacts from the program are on display at various locations
throughout the world, notably at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museums.

Skylab (1965–1979)
Main article: Skylab

Skylab in 1974, seen from the departing Skylab 4 CSM.

Skylab was the United States' first and only independently built space station.[55]
Conceived in 1965 as a workshop to be constructed in space from a spent Saturn IB
upper stage, the 169,950 lb (77,088 kg) station was constructed on Earth and
launched on May 14, 1973, atop the first two stages of a Saturn V, into a 235-
nautical-mile (435 km) orbit inclined at 50° to the equator. Damaged during launch
by the loss of its thermal protection and one electricity-generating solar panel,
it was repaired to functionality by its first crew. It was occupied for a total of
171 days by 3 successive crews in 1973 and 1974.[55] It included a laboratory for
studying the effects of microgravity, and a solar observatory.[55] NASA planned to
have a Space Shuttle dock with it, and elevate Skylab to a higher safe altitude,
but the Shuttle was not ready for flight before Skylab's re-entry on July 11, 1979.
[56]

To reduce cost, NASA used one of the Saturn V rockets originally earmarked for a
canceled Apollo mission to launch the Skylab. Apollo spacecraft were used for
transporting astronauts to and from the station. Three three-man crews stayed
aboard the station for periods of 28, 59, and 84 days. Skylab's habitable volume
was 11,290 cubic feet (320 m3), which was 30.7 times bigger than that of the Apollo
Command Module.[56]

Apollo-Soyuz (1972–1975)
Main article: Apollo-Soyuz

Soviet and American crews with spacecraft model, 1975.

On May 24, 1972, US President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin
signed an agreement calling for a joint crewed space mission, and declaring intent
for all future international crewed spacecraft to be capable of docking with each
other.[57] This authorized the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), involving the
rendezvous and docking in Earth orbit of a surplus Apollo command and service
module with a Soyuz spacecraft. The mission took place in July 1975. This was the
last US human spaceflight until the first orbital flight of the Space Shuttle in
April 1981.[58]
The mission included both joint and separate scientific experiments and provided
useful engineering experience for future joint US–Russian space flights, such as
the Shuttle–Mir program[59] and the International Space Station.

Leadership
Main article: List of Administrators and Deputy Administrators of NASA

Administrator Bill Nelson

The agency's leader, NASA's administrator, is nominated by the President of the
United States subject to the approval of the US Senate,[60] and reports to him or
her and serves as a senior space science advisor. Though space exploration is
ostensibly non-partisan, the appointee usually is associated with the President's
political party (Democratic or Republican), and a new administrator is usually
chosen when the Presidency changes parties. The only exceptions to this have been:

Democrat Thomas O. Paine, acting administrator under Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson,

stayed on while Republican Richard Nixon tried but failed to get one of his own
choices to accept the job. Paine was confirmed by the Senate in March 1969 and
served through September 1970.[61]
Republican James C. Fletcher, appointed by Nixon and confirmed in April 1971,
stayed through May 1977 into the term of Democrat Jimmy Carter.
Daniel Goldin was appointed by Republican George H. W. Bush and stayed through the
entire administration of Democrat Bill Clinton.
Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr., associate administrator under Democrat Barack Obama, was
kept on as acting administrator by Republican Donald Trump until Trump's own
choice, Jim Bridenstine, was confirmed in April 2018.[62]
Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator under Donald Trump, filled the
administrator's chair until Democrat Joe Biden's nominee Bill Nelson was confirmed.
[63]
The first administrator was Dr. T. Keith Glennan, appointed by Republican President
Dwight D. Eisenhower. During his term he brought together the disparate projects in
American space development research.[64]

The second administrator, James E. Webb (1961–1968), appointed by President John F.

Kennedy, was a Democrat who first publicly served under President Harry S. Truman.
In order to implement the Apollo program to achieve Kennedy's Moon landing goal by
the end of the 1960s, Webb directed major management restructuring and facility
expansion, establishing the Houston Manned Spacecraft (Johnson) Center and the
Florida Launch Operations (Kennedy) Center. Capitalizing on Kennedy's legacy,
President Lyndon Johnson kept continuity with the Apollo program by keeping Webb on
when he succeeded Kennedy in November 1963. But Webb resigned in October 1968
before Apollo achieved its goal.

Organizational structure of NASA (2015)

James Fletcher supervised early planning of the Space Shuttle program during his
first term as administrator under President Nixon.[65] He was appointed for a
second term as administrator from May 1986 through April 1989 by President Ronald
Reagan to help the agency recover from the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[66]

Former astronaut Charles Bolden served as NASA's twelfth administrator from July
2009 to January 20, 2017.[67] Bolden is one of three former astronauts who became
NASA administrators, along with Richard H. Truly (served 1989–1992) and Frederick
D. Gregory (acting, 2005).

The agency's administration is located at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, and

provides overall guidance and direction.[68] Except under exceptional
circumstances, NASA civil service employees are required to be citizens of the
United States.[69]
Facilities
Main article: NASA facilities

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NASA logo at JPL on November 17, 2020[70]

NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC provides overall guidance and political
leadership to the agency's ten field centers, through which all other facilities
are administered.[71] Four of these were inherited from NACA; two others were
transferred from the Army; and NASA commissioned and built the other four itself
shortly after its formation.

Inherited from NACA

Langley Research Center (LaRC), located in Hampton, Virginia. LaRC focuses on
aeronautical research, though the Apollo lunar lander was flight-tested at the
facility and a number of high-profile space missions have been planned and designed
on-site. LaRC was the original home of the Space Task Group.[72]

Ames Research Center (ARC) at Moffett Field was founded on December 20, 1939. The
center was named after Joseph Sweetman Ames, a founding member of the NACA. ARC is
one of NASA's 10 major field centers and is located in California's Silicon Valley.
Historically, Ames was founded to do wind-tunnel research on the aerodynamics of
propeller-driven aircraft; however, it has expanded its role to doing research and
technology in aeronautics, spaceflight, and information technology. It provides
leadership in astrobiology, small satellites, robotic lunar exploration,
intelligent/adaptive systems and thermal protection.

George W. Lewis Research Center The center's core competencies include air-
breathing and in-space propulsion and cryogenics, communications, power energy
storage and conversion, microgravity sciences, and advanced materials.

Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Facility (AFRC), established by NACA before 1946 and
located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is the home of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
(SCA), a modified Boeing 747 designed to carry a Space Shuttle orbiter back to
Kennedy Space Center after a landing at Edwards AFB. On January 16, 2014, the
center was renamed in honor of Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to walk on the
Moon.[73][74]

Langley Research Center

Ames Research Center wind tunnels

Transferred from the Army

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los
Angeles County, CA, is headquartered in the city of La Cañada Flintridge[75][76]
with a Pasadena mailing address. JPL is managed by the nearby California Institute
of Technology (Caltech). The Laboratory's primary function is the construction and
operation of robotic planetary spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and
astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating NASA's Deep Space Network.

George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), located on the Redstone Arsenal near
Huntsville, Alabama, is one of NASA's largest centers. MSFC is where the Saturn V
rocket and Spacelab were developed. Marshall is NASA's lead center for
International Space Station (ISS) design and assembly; payloads and related crew
training; and was the lead for Space Shuttle propulsion and its external tank. From
December 1959, it contained the Launch Operations Directorate, which moved to
Florida to become the Launch Operations Center on July 1, 1962.[77]

Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, California

George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama

Built by NASA

The Goddard Institute for Space Studies of Columbia University in New York City
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), located in Greenbelt, Maryland, was
commissioned by NASA on March 1, 1959. It is the largest combined organization of
scientists and engineers in the United States dedicated to increasing knowledge of
the Earth, the Solar System, and the Universe via observations from space. GSFC is
a major U.S. laboratory for developing and operating unmanned scientific
spacecraft. GSFC also operates two spaceflight tracking and data acquisition
networks (the Space Network and the Near Earth Network), develops and maintains
advanced space and Earth science data information systems, and develops satellite
systems for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). External
facilities of the GSFC include the Wallops Flight Facility, the Goddard Institute
for Space Studies at Columbia University, and the Katherine Johnson Independent
Verification and Validation Facility.

John C. Stennis Space Center, originally the "Mississippi Test Facility", is

located in Hancock County, Mississippi, on the banks of the Pearl River at the
Mississippi–Louisiana border. Commissioned on October 25, 1961, it was NASA's
largest rocket engine test facility until the end of the Space Shuttle program. It
is currently used for rocket testing by over 30 local, state, national,
international, private, and public companies and agencies. It contains the NASA
Shared Services Center.[78]

Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) is the NASA center for human spaceflight training,
research and flight control. Created on November 1, 1961, the facility consists of
a complex of 100 buildings constructed in 1962–1963 on 1,620 acres (656 ha) of land
donated by Rice University in Houston, Texas.[79] The center grew out of the Space
Task Group formed soon after the creation of NASA to co-ordinate the US human
spaceflight program. It is home to the United States Astronaut Corps and is
responsible for training astronauts from the U.S. and its international partners,
and includes the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center.[79] The center
was renamed in honor of the late U.S. president and Texas native Lyndon B. Johnson
on February 19, 1973.[80][81]

John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), located west of Cape Canaveral Space Force
Station in Florida, is one of the best known NASA facilities. Named the "Launch
Operations Center" at its creation on July 1, 1962, it was renamed in honor of the
late U.S. president on November 29, 1963,[82][83] and has been the launch site for
every United States human space flight since 1968. KSC continues to manage and
operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program from
three pads at Cape Canaveral. Its Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) is the fourth-
largest structure in the world by volume[84] and was the largest when completed in
1965.[85] A total of 13,100 people worked at the center as of 2011. Approximately
2,100 are employees of the federal government; the rest are contractors.[86]
Subordinate facilities include the Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island,
Virginia; the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana; the White Sands
Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Deep Space Network stations in
Barstow, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia.

Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston

John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida

Modern human spaceflight programs

Space Shuttle program (1972–2011)
Main article: Space Shuttle program

Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery at the start of STS-120.

The Space Shuttle became the major focus of NASA in the late 1970s and the 1980s.
Originally planned as a frequently launchable, fully reusable vehicle, the design
was changed to use an expendable external propellant tank to reduce development
cost, and four Space Shuttle orbiters were built by 1985. The first to launch,
Columbia, did so on April 12, 1981, the 20th anniversary of the first human
spaceflight.[87]

Its major components were a spaceplane orbiter with an external fuel tank and two
solid-fuel launch rockets at its side. The external tank, which was bigger than the
spacecraft itself, was the only major component that was not reused. The shuttle
could orbit in altitudes of 185–643 km (115–400 miles)[88] and carry a maximum
payload (to low orbit) of 24,400 kg (54,000 lb).[89] Missions could last from 5 to
17 days and crews could be from 2 to 8 astronauts.[88]

On 20 missions (1983–1998) the Space Shuttle carried Spacelab, designed in

cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA). Spacelab was not designed for
independent orbital flight, but remained in the Shuttle's cargo bay as the
astronauts entered and left it through an airlock.[90] On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride
became the first American woman in space, on board the Space Shuttle Challenger
STS-7 mission.[91] Another famous series of missions were the launch and later
successful repair of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 and 1993, respectively.[92]

In 1995, Russian-American interaction resumed with the Shuttle–Mir missions (1995–

1998). Once more an American vehicle docked with a Russian craft, this time a full-
fledged space station. This cooperation has continued with Russia and the United
States as two of the biggest partners in the largest space station 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.

The Shuttle fleet lost two orbiters and 14 astronauts in two disasters: Challenger
in 1986, and Columbia in 2003.[93] While the 1986 loss was mitigated by building
the Space Shuttle Endeavour from replacement parts, NASA did not build another
orbiter to replace the second loss.[93] NASA's Space Shuttle program had 135
missions when the program ended with the successful landing of the Space Shuttle
Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011. The program spanned 30 years
with over 300 astronauts sent into space.[94]
International Space Station (1993–present)
Main article: International Space Station

The International Space Station as seen from Space Shuttle Endeavour during STS-
134.
The International Space Station (ISS) combines NASA's Space Station Freedom project
with the Soviet/Russian Mir-2 station, the European Columbus station, and the
Japanese Kibō laboratory module.[95] NASA originally planned in the 1980s to
develop Freedom alone, but US budget constraints led to the merger of these
projects into a single multi-national program in 1993, managed by NASA, the Russian
Federal Space Agency (RKA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the
European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).[96][97] The
station consists of pressurized modules, external trusses, solar arrays and other
components, which were manufactured in various factories around the world, and have
been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets, and the US Space Shuttles.[95]
The on-orbit assembly began in 1998, the completion of the US Orbital Segment
occurred in 2019 and the completion of the Russian Orbital Segment occurred in
2010, though there are some debates of whether new modules should be added in the
segment. The ownership and use of the space station is established in
intergovernmental treaties and agreements[98] which divide the station into two
areas and allow Russia to retain full ownership of the Russian Orbital Segment
(with the exception of Zarya),[99][100] with the US Orbital Segment allocated
between the other international partners.[98]

Long-duration missions to the ISS are referred to as ISS Expeditions. Expedition

crew members typically spend approximately six months on the ISS.[101] The initial
expedition crew size was three, temporarily decreased to two following the Columbia
disaster. Since May 2009, expedition crew size has been six crew members.[102] Crew
size is expected to be increased to seven, the number the ISS was designed for,
once the Commercial Crew Program becomes operational.[103] The ISS has been
continuously occupied for the past 21 years and 11 days, having exceeded the
previous record held by Mir; and has been visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from
15 different nations.[104][105]

The station can be seen from the Earth with the naked eye and, as of 2021, is the
largest artificial satellite in Earth orbit with a mass and volume greater than
that of any previous space station.[106] The Soyuz spacecraft delivers crew
members, stays docked for their half-year-long missions and then returns them home.
Several uncrewed cargo spacecraft provide service to the ISS; they are the Russian
Progress spacecraft which has done so since 2000, the European Automated Transfer
Vehicle (ATV) since 2008, the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) since 2009, the
SpaceX Dragon from 2012 until 2020, and the American Cygnus spacecraft since 2013.
The Space Shuttle, before its retirement, was also used for cargo transfer and
would often switch out expedition crew members, although it did not have the
capability to remain docked for the duration of their stay. Until another US crewed
spacecraft is ready, crew members will travel to and from the International Space
Station exclusively aboard the Soyuz.[107] The highest number of people occupying
the ISS has been thirteen; this occurred three times during the late Shuttle ISS
assembly missions.[108]

On March 29, 2019, the ISS was scheduled to have its first all-female spacewalk,
but it was delayed; Jessica Meir and Christina Koch performed the first all-female
spacewalk with on October 18, as part of a lengthy series of upgrades to the ISS'
power systems and physics observatories.[109][110][111] The ISS program is expected
to continue to 2030.[112]

Constellation program (2005–2010)

Main article: Constellation program
Artist's rendering of Altair lander landed on the Moon.
While the Space Shuttle program was still suspended after the loss of Columbia,
President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration including the
retirement of the Space Shuttle after completing the International Space Station.
The plan was enacted into law by the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 and directs
NASA to develop and launch the Crew Exploration Vehicle (later called Orion) by
2010, return Americans to the Moon by 2020, land on Mars as feasible, repair the
Hubble Space Telescope, and continue scientific investigation through robotic solar
system exploration, human presence on the ISS, Earth observation, and astrophysics
research. The crewed exploration goals prompted NASA's Constellation program.[113]

On December 4, 2006, NASA announced it was planning a permanent Moon base.[114] The
goal was to start building the Moon base by 2020, and by 2024, have a fully
functional base that would allow for crew rotations and in-situ resource
utilization. However, in 2009, the Augustine Committee found the program to be on
an "unsustainable trajectory."[115] In February 2010, President Barack Obama's
administration proposed eliminating public funds for it.[116]

Commercial Crew Program (2011–present)

This section is an excerpt from Commercial Crew Program.[edit]
NASA Commercial Crew Program logo (cropped).svg

The Crew Dragon (left) approaching the ISS. Starliner (right) being stacked for
testing.
The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) provides commercially-operated crew
transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under
contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between the expeditions of the
International Space Station program. American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX began
providing service in 2020, using the Crew Dragon spacecraft, and Boeing will also
join when its Boeing Starliner spacecraft becomes operational in 2023.

The spacecraft are owned and operated by the vendor, and crew transportation is
provided to NASA as a commercial service. Each mission sends up to four astronauts
to the ISS, with an option for a fifth passenger available. Operational flights
occur approximately once every six months for missions that last for approximately
six months. A spacecraft remains docked to the ISS during its mission, and missions
usually overlap by at least a few days. Between the retirement of the Space Shuttle
in 2011 and the first operational CCP mission in 2020, NASA relied on the Soyuz
program to transport its astronauts to the ISS.

A Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched to space atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 launch

vehicle and the capsule returns to Earth via splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. The
program's first operational mission, SpaceX Crew-1, launched on 16 November 2020.
Boeing Starliner spacecraft will participate after its final test flight, launched
atop an Atlas V N22 or Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle. Instead of a splashdown, a
Starliner capsule will return on land with airbags at one of four designated sites
in the western United States.

Development of the Commercial Crew Program began in 2011 as NASA shifted from
internal development of crewed vehicles to perform ISS crew rotation to commercial
industry development of transport to the ISS. A series of open competitions over
the following two years saw successful bids from Boeing, Blue Origin, Sierra
Nevada, and SpaceX to develop proposals for ISS crew transport vehicles. In 2014,
NASA awarded separate fixed-price contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to develop their
respective systems and to fly astronauts to the ISS. Each contract required four
successful demonstrations to achieve human rating for the system: pad abort,
uncrewed orbital test, launch abort, and crewed orbital test. Operational missions
were initially planned to begin in 2017, but delays required NASA to purchase
additional seats on Soyuz spacecraft up to Soyuz MS-17.
Journey to Mars (2010–2017)
President Obama's plan was to develop American private spaceflight capabilities to
get astronauts to the International Space Station, replace Russian Soyuz capsules,
and use Orion capsules for ISS emergency escape purposes. During a speech at the
Kennedy Space Center on April 15, 2010, Obama proposed a new heavy-lift vehicle
(HLV) to replace the formerly planned Ares V.[117] In his speech, Obama called for
a crewed mission to an asteroid as soon as 2025, and a crewed mission to Mars orbit
by the mid-2030s.[117] The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 was passed by Congress
and signed into law on October 11, 2010.[118] The act officially canceled the
Constellation program.[118]

The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 required a newly designed HLV be chosen within
90 days of its passing; the launch vehicle was given the name Space Launch System.
The new law also required the construction of a beyond low earth orbit spacecraft.
[119] The Orion spacecraft, which was being developed as part of the Constellation
program, was chosen to fulfill this role.[120] The Space Launch System is planned
to launch both Orion and other necessary hardware for missions beyond low Earth
orbit.[121] The SLS is to be upgraded over time with more powerful versions. The
initial capability of SLS is required to be able to lift 70 t (150,000 lb) (later
95 t or 209,000 lb) into LEO. It is then planned to be upgraded to 105 t (231,000
lb) and then eventually to 130 t (290,000 lb).[120][122] The Orion capsule first
flew on Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1), an uncrewed test flight that was
launched on December 5, 2014, atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket.[122]

NASA undertook a feasibility study in 2012 and developed the Asteroid Redirect
Mission as an uncrewed mission to move a boulder-sized near-Earth asteroid (or
boulder-sized chunk of a larger asteroid) into lunar orbit. The mission would
demonstrate ion thruster technology, and develop techniques that could be used for
planetary defense against an asteroid collision, as well as a cargo transport to
Mars in support of a future human mission. The Moon-orbiting boulder might then
later be visited by astronauts. The Asteroid Redirect Mission was cancelled in 2017
as part of the FY2018 NASA budget, the first one under President Donald Trump.[123]

The Orion spacecraft conducted an uncrewed test launch on a Delta IV Heavy rocket
in December 2014.[124]

Artemis program (2017–present)

Main article: Artemis program
An arrowhead combined with a depiction of a trans-lunar injection trajectory forms
an "A", with an "Artemis" wordmark printed underneath
Artemis program logo
Since 2017, NASA's crewed spaceflight program has been the Artemis program, which
involves the help of U.S. commercial spaceflight companies and international
partners such as ESA, JAXA, and CSA.[125] The goal of this program is to land "the
first woman and the next man" on the lunar south pole region by 2024. Artemis would
be the first step towards the long-term goal of establishing a sustainable presence
on the Moon, laying the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy,
and eventually sending humans to Mars.

The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle was held over from the canceled Constellation
program for Artemis. Artemis 1 is the uncrewed initial launch of Space Launch
System (SLS) that would also send an Orion spacecraft on a Distant Retrograde
Orbit, which, as of May 2020, is planned to launch no earlier than November 2021.
[126]

File:Mars Exploration Zones.webm

Concepts for how the first human landing site on Mars might evolve over the course
of multiple human expeditions
NASA's next major space initiative is to be the construction of the Lunar Gateway.
This initiative is to involve the construction of a new space station, which will
have many features in common with the current International Space Station, except
that it will be in orbit about the Moon, instead of the Earth.[127] This space
station will be designed primarily for non-continuous human habitation. The first
tentative steps of returning to crewed lunar missions will be Artemis 2, which is
to include the Orion crew module, propelled by the SLS, and is to launch in 2023.
[125] This mission is to be a 10-day mission planned to briefly place a crew of
four into a Lunar flyby.[122] The construction of the Gateway would begin with the
proposed Artemis 3, which is planned to deliver a crew of four to Lunar orbit along
with the first modules of the Gateway. This mission would last for up to 30 days.
NASA plans to build full scale deep space habitats such as the Lunar Gateway and
the Nautilus-X as part of its Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships
(NextSTEP) program.[128] In 2017, NASA was directed by the congressional NASA
Transition Authorization Act of 2017 to get humans to Mars-orbit (or to the Martian
surface) by the 2030s.[129][130]

In September 2020, as a part of the Artemis program, NASA outlined a plan to send
astronauts to the Moon by 2024. The astronauts are to travel in the Orion capsule,
launched on the SLS rocket.[131]

In February 2021, it was announced that "Blue Ghost Lander", a robotic device being
constructed in Cedar Park, Texas, will be sent to the moon's Mare Crisium in 2023
to help prepare for NASA's goal of returning to the Lunar surface.[132][133]

In November 2021, it was announced that the goal of landing sending astronauts to
the Moon by 2024 had slipped to No Earlier Than 2025 due to numerous factors.

Satellites, probes, rovers, launch vehicles

Main articles: List of NASA missions and List of uncrewed NASA missions
File:NASA 60th- What’s Out There.webm
Video of many of the uncrewed missions used to explore the outer reaches of space
NASA has conducted many uncrewed and robotic spaceflight programs throughout its
history. Uncrewed robotic programs launched the first American artificial
satellites into Earth orbit for scientific and communications purposes, and sent
scientific probes to explore the planets of the solar system, starting with Venus
and Mars, and including "grand tours" of the outer planets. More than 1,000
uncrewed missions have been designed to explore the Earth and the solar system.
[134]

Earth, Moon, and L2 point

Besides exploration, communication satellites have also been launched by NASA.[135]
The spacecraft have been launched directly from Earth or from orbiting space
shuttles, which could either deploy the satellite itself, or with a rocket stage to
take it farther.

The first US uncrewed satellite was Explorer 1, which started as an ABMA/JPL

project during the early part of the Space Race. It was launched in January 1958,
two months after Sputnik. At the creation of NASA, the Explorer project was
transferred to the agency and still continues to this day. Its missions have been
focusing on the Earth and the Sun, measuring magnetic fields and the solar wind,
among other aspects.[136] A more recent Earth satellite, not related to the
Explorer program, was the Hubble Space Telescope, which was brought into orbit in
1990.[137]

Cygnus and Cargo Dragon are used to resupply the International Space Station (ISS)
as part of NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program as of 2020. Cygnus is
manufactured by Northrop Grumman and launched on the Antares rocket. Cargo Dragon
is manufactured by SpaceX and launched on the Block 5 variant of Falcon 9. SpaceX
Dragon, also launched on Falcon 9, was used to resupply the ISS from 2010 to 2020.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is currently scheduled to launch in November
2021 on an Ariane 5 rocket.[138] It will be placed in a halo orbit circling the
Sun-Earth L2 point.[139]

Inner solar system (including Mars)

William H. Pickering, (center) JPL Director, President John F. Kennedy, (right).

NASA Administrator James E. Webb (background) discussing the Mariner program, with
a model presented.
The inner Solar System has been made the goal of at least four uncrewed programs.
The first was Mariner in the 1960s and 1970s, which made multiple visits to Venus
and Mars and one to Mercury. Probes launched under the Mariner program were also
the first to make a planetary flyby (Mariner 2), to take the first pictures from
another planet (Mariner 4), the first planetary orbiter (Mariner 9), and the first
to make a gravity assist maneuver (Mariner 10). This is a technique where the
satellite takes advantage of the gravity and velocity of planets to reach its
destination.[140]

The first successful landing on Mars was made by Viking 1 in 1976. Twenty years
later a rover was landed on Mars by Mars Pathfinder.[141] On November 26, 2011,
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission was successfully launched for Mars.
Curiosity successfully landed on Mars on August 6, 2012, and subsequently began its
search for evidence of past or present life on Mars.[142][143][144] On the horizon
of NASA's plans is the MAVEN spacecraft as part of the Mars Scout Program to study
the atmosphere of Mars.[145]

NASA's ongoing investigations include in-depth surveys of Mars (Perseverance and

InSight).

Outer solar system

Outside Mars, Jupiter was first visited by Pioneer 10 in 1973. More than 20 years
later Galileo sent a probe into the planet's atmosphere, and became the first
spacecraft to orbit the planet.[146] Pioneer 11 became the first spacecraft to
visit Saturn in 1979, with Voyager 2 making the first (and so far only) visits to
Uranus and Neptune in 1986 and 1989, respectively. The first spacecraft to leave
the solar system was Pioneer 10 in 1983. For a time it was the most distant
spacecraft, but it has since been surpassed by both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.[147]

Pioneers 10 and 11 and both Voyager probes carry messages from the Earth to
extraterrestrial life.[148][149] Communication can be difficult with deep space
travel. For instance, it took about three hours for a radio signal to reach the New
Horizons spacecraft when it was more than halfway to Pluto.[150] Contact with
Pioneer 10 was lost in 2003. Both Voyager probes continue to operate as they
explore the outer boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space.[151]

The New Horizons mission to Pluto was launched in 2006 and successfully performed a
flyby of Pluto on July 14, 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 flyby. Other active spacecraft are Juno for Jupiter and Dawn
for the asteroid belt. NASA continued to support in situ exploration beyond the
asteroid belt, including Pioneer and Voyager traverses into the unexplored trans-
Pluto region, and gas giant orbiters Galileo (1989–2003), Cassini (1997–2017), and
Juno (2011–present).

Near-Earth object detection

Further information: Near-Earth object
In 1994, there was a Congressional directive to find near-Earth objects (NEOs)
larger than 1 kilometer, and 90% of 1 kilometer sized asteroids are estimated to
have been found by 2010.[152]

In 1999, NASA visited 433 Eros with the NEAR spacecraft which entered its orbit in
2000, closely imaging the asteroid with various instruments at that time.[153] From
the 1990s NASA has run many NEO detection programs from Earth bases observatories,
greatly increasing the number of objects that have been detected. However, many
asteroids are very dark and the ones that are near the Sun are much harder to
detect from Earth-based telescopes which observe at night, and thus face away from
the Sun. NEOs inside Earth orbit only reflect a part of light also rather than
potentially a "full Moon" when they are behind the Earth and fully lit by the Sun.

In 2005, the US Congress mandated NASA to achieve by the year 2020 specific levels
of search completeness for discovering, cataloging, and characterizing dangerous
asteroids larger than 140 meters (460 ft) (Act of 2005, H.R. 1022; 109th),[154] but
no new funds were appropriated for this effort.[155] As of January 2019, it is
estimated about 40% of the NEOs of this size have been found, although since by its
nature the exact amount of NEOs are unknown the calculations are based on
predictions of how many there could be.[156]

One issue with NEO prediction is trying to estimate how many more are likely to be
found. In 2000, NASA reduced its estimate of the number of existing near-Earth
asteroids over one kilometer in diameter from 1,000–2,000 to 500–1,000.[157][158]
Shortly thereafter, the LINEAR survey provided an alternative estimate of 1,227+170
−90.[159] In 2011, on the basis of NEOWISE observations, the estimated number of
one-kilometer NEAs was narrowed to 981±19 (of which 93% had been discovered at the
time), while the number of NEAs larger than 140 meters across was estimated at
13,200±1,900.[160][161] The NEOWISE estimate differed from other estimates in
assuming a slightly lower average asteroid albedo, which produces larger estimated
diameters for the same asteroid brightness. This resulted in 911 then known
asteroids at least 1 km across, as opposed to the 830 then listed by CNEOS.[162] In
2017, using an improved statistical method, two studies reduced the estimated
number of NEAs brighter than absolute magnitude 17.75 (approximately over one
kilometer in diameter) to 921±20.[163][164] The estimated number of asteroids
brighter than absolute magnitude of 22.0 (approximately over 140 m across) rose to
27,100±2,200, double the WISE estimate,[164] of which about a third are known as of
2018. A problem with estimating the number of NEOs is that detections are
influenced by a number of factors.[165]

NASA turned the infrared space survey telescope WISE back on in 2013 to look for
NEOs, and it found some during the course of its operation. NEOcam competed in the
highly competitive Discovery program, which became more so due to a low mission
rate in the 2010s.

Due to the opposition effect over half (53%) of the discoveries of Near Earth
objects were made in 3.8% of the sky, in a 22.5° cone facing directly away from the
Sun, and the vast majority (87%) were made in 15% of the sky, in a 45° cone facing
away from the Sun.[166]
Research
Main article: NASA research
For technologies funded or otherwise supported by NASA, see NASA spinoff
technologies.
NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate conducts aeronautics research.

NASA has made use of technologies such as the multi-mission radioisotope

thermoelectric generator (MMRTG), which is a type of radioisotope thermoelectric
generator used to power spacecraft.[167] Shortages of the required plutonium-238
have curtailed deep space missions since the turn of the millennium.[168] An
example of a spacecraft that was not developed because of a shortage of this
material was New Horizons 2.[168]

The Earth science research program was created and first funded in the 1980s under
the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.[169][170]

NASA started an annual competition in 2014 named Cubes in Space.[171] It is jointly

organized by NASA and the global education company I Doodle Learning, with the
objective of teaching school students aged 11–18 to design and build scientific
experiments to be launched into space on a NASA rocket or balloon. On June 21, 2017
the world's smallest satellite, KalamSAT, was launched.[172]

NASA also researches and publishes on climate change.[173] Its statements concur
with the global scientific consensus that the global climate is warming.[174] Bob
Walker, who has advised US President Donald Trump on space issues, has advocated
that NASA should focus on space exploration and that its climate study operations
should be transferred to other agencies such as NOAA. Former NASA atmospheric
scientist J. Marshall Shepherd countered that Earth science study was built into
NASA's mission at its creation in the 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act.[175]
NASA won the 2020 Webby People's Voice Award for Green in the category Web.[176]

NASA contracted a third party to study the probability of using Free Space Optics
(FSO) to communicate with Optical (laser) Stations on the Ground (OGS) called
laser-com RF networks for satellite communications.[177]

On July 29, 2020, NASA requested American universities to propose new technologies
for extracting water from the lunar soil and developing power systems. The idea
will help the space agency conduct sustainable exploration of the Moon.[178]

Environmental impact
The exhaust gases produced by rocket propulsion systems, both in Earth's atmosphere
and in space, can adversely effect the Earth's environment. Some hypergolic rocket
propellants, such as hydrazine, are highly toxic prior to combustion, but decompose
into less toxic compounds after burning. Rockets using hydrocarbon fuels, such as
kerosene, release carbon dioxide and soot in their exhaust.[179] However, carbon
dioxide emissions are insignificant compared to those from other sources; on
average, the United States consumed 802,620,000 US gallons (3.0382×109 L) of liquid
fuels per day in 2014, while a single Falcon 9 rocket first stage burns around
25,000 US gallons (95,000 L) of kerosene fuel per launch.[180][181] Even if a
Falcon 9 were launched every single day, it would only represent 0.006% of liquid
fuel consumption (and carbon dioxide emissions) for that day. Additionally, the
exhaust from LOx- and LH2- fueled engines, like the SSME, is almost entirely water
vapor.[182] NASA addressed environmental concerns with its canceled Constellation
program in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act in 2011.[183] In
contrast, ion engines use harmless noble gases like xenon for propulsion.[184][185]

An example of NASA's environmental efforts is the NASA Sustainability Base.

Additionally, the Exploration Sciences Building was awarded the LEED Gold rating in
2010.[186] On May 8, 2003, the 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.[187]

In 2018, NASA along with other companies including Sensor Coating Systems, Pratt &
Whitney, Monitor Coating and UTRC launched the project CAUTION (CoAtings for Ultra
High Temperature detectION). This project aims to enhance the temperature range of
the Thermal History Coating up to 1,500 °C (2,730 °F) and beyond. The final goal of
this project is improving the safety of jet engines as well as increasing
efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions.[188]
Goals and directives
Further information: Space policy of the United States
Some of NASA's main directives have been the landing of a crewed spacecraft on the
Moon, the designing and construction of the Space Shuttle, and efforts to construct
a large, crewed space station. Typically, the major directives originated from the
intersection of scientific interest and advice, political interests, federal
funding concerns, and the public interest, which all together brought varying waves
of effort, often heavily swayed by technical developments, funding changes, and
world events. For example, in the 1980s, the Reagan administration announced a
directive with a major push to build a crewed space station, given the name Space
Station Freedom.[189] But, when the Cold War ended, Russia, the United States, and
other international partners came together to design and build the International
Space Station.

In the 2010s, major shifts in directives include the retirement of the Space
Shuttle, and the later development of a new crewed heavy-lift rocket, the Space
Launch System. Missions for the new Space Launch System have varied, but overall,
NASA's directives are similar to the Space Shuttle program as the primary goal and
desire is human spaceflight. Additionally, NASA's Space Exploration Initiative of
the 1980s opened new avenues of exploration focused on other galaxies.

For the coming decades, NASA's focus has gradually shifting towards eventual
exploration of Mars.[190] One of the technological options focused on was the
Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM).[190] ARM had largely been defunded in 2017, but
the key technologies developed for ARM would be utilized for future exploration,
notably on a solar electric propulsion system.[123][190]

Longer project execution timelines leave future executive administration officials

to execute on a directive, which can lead to directional mismanagement.[vague]

Previously, in the early 2000s, NASA worked towards a strategic plan called the
Constellation Program, but the program was defunded in the early 2010s.[191][192]
[193][194] In the 1990s, NASA's administration adopted an approach to planning
coined "Faster, Better, Cheaper".[195]

NASA Authorization Act of 2017

The NASA Authorization Act of 2017, which included $19.5 billion in funding for
that fiscal year, directed NASA to get humans near or on the surface of Mars by the
early 2030s.[196]

Though the agency is independent, the survival or discontinuation of projects can

depend directly on the will of the President.[197]

Space Policy Directive 1

In December 2017, on the 45th anniversary of the last crewed mission to the Moon's
surface, President Donald Trump approved a directive that includes a lunar mission
on the pathway to Mars and beyond.[190]

The directive I'm signing today will refocus America's space program on human
exploration and discovery. It marks an important step in returning American
astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972 for long-term exploration and
use. This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will
establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars. And perhaps, someday, to
many worlds beyond.

— President Donald Trump, 2017[198]

New NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine addressed this directive in an August 2018
speech where he focused on the sustainability aspects—going to the Moon to stay—
that are explicit in the directive, including taking advantage of US commercial
space capability that did not exist even five years ago, which have driven down
costs and increased access to space.[199]

Goals
Since 2011, NASA's strategic goals have been[200]

Extend and sustain human activities across the Solar System

Expand scientific understanding of the Earth and the universe
Create innovative new space technologies
Advance aeronautics research
Enable program and institutional capabilities to conduct NASA's aeronautics and
space activities
Share NASA with the public, educators, and students to provide opportunities to
participate
Budget
Main article: Budget of NASA

NASA's budget from 1958 to 2012 as a percentage of federal budget

An artist's conception, from NASA, of an astronaut planting a US flag on Mars. A

human mission to Mars has been discussed as a possible NASA mission since the
1960s.
NASA's share of the total federal budget peaked at approximately 4.41% in 1966
during the Apollo program, then rapidly declined to approximately 1% in 1975, and
stayed around that level through 1998.[197][201] The percentage then gradually
dropped, until leveling off again at around half a percent in 2006 (estimated in
2012 at 0.48% of the federal budget).[202] In a March 2012 hearing of the United
States Senate Science Committee, science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson testified
that "Right now, NASA's annual budget is half a penny on your tax dollar. For twice
that—a penny on a dollar—we can transform the country from a sullen, dispirited
nation, weary of economic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed its 20th century
birthright to dream of tomorrow."[203][204]

Despite this, public perception of NASA's budget differs significantly: a 1997 poll
indicated that most Americans believed that 20% of the federal budget went to NASA.
[205]

For Fiscal Year 2015, NASA received an appropriation of US$18.01 billion from
Congress—$549 million more than requested and approximately $350 million more than
the 2014 NASA budget passed by Congress.[206]

In Fiscal Year 2016, NASA received $19.3 billion.[207]

President Donald Trump signed the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017 in
March, which set the 2017 budget at around $19.5 billion.[207] The budget is also
reported as $19.3 billion for 2017, with $20.7 billion proposed for FY2018.[208]
[209]

Examples of some proposed FY2018 budgets:[209]

Exploration: $4.79 billion

Planetary science: $2.23 billion
Earth science: $1.92 billion
Aeronautics: $0.685 billion
Media
NASAcast
NASAcast is the official audio and video podcast of the NASA website. Created in
late 2005, the podcast service contains the latest audio and video features from
the NASA web site, including NASA TV's This Week at NASA and educational materials
produced by NASA. Additional NASA podcasts, such as Science@NASA, are also featured
and give subscribers an in-depth look at content by subject matter.[210]

NASA EDGE
NASA EDGE is a video podcast which explores different missions, technologies and
projects developed by NASA. The program was released by NASA on March 18, 2007,
and, as of August 2020, there have been 200 vodcasts produced. It is a public
outreach vodcast sponsored by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and
based out of the Exploration and Space Operations Directorate at Langley Research
Center in Hampton, Virginia. NASA EDGE takes an insiders look at current projects
and technologies from NASA facilities around the United States, and it is depicted
through personal interviews, on-scene broadcasts, computer animations, and personal
interviews with top scientists and engineers at NASA. The show explores the
contributions NASA has made to society as well as the progress of current projects
in materials and space exploration. NASA EDGE vodcasts can be downloaded from the
NASA website and from iTunes.

Cast and crew

Chris Giersch - host
Blair Allen - co-host and senior producer[211]
Franklin Fitzgerald - news anchor and "everyman"
Jaqueline Mirielle Cortez - special co-host
Ron Beard - director and "set therapist"
Don Morrison - audio/video engineer
Ryan Darden - Editor[212]
Reception
In its first year of production, the show was downloaded over 450,000 times. As of
February 2010, the average download rate is more than 420,000 per month, with over
one million downloads in December 2009 and January 2010.[213]

Interactive projects

NASA EDGE broadcasting live from White Sands Missile Range in 2010
NASA and the NASA EDGE have developed interactive programs designed to complement
the vodcast. The Lunar Electric Rover App allows users to drive a simulated Lunar
Electric Rover between objectives, and it provides information about and images of
the vehicle.[214] The NASA EDGE Widget provides a graphical user interface for
accessing NASA EDGE vodcasts, image galleries, and the program's Twitter feed, as
well as a live NASA news feed.[215]

Miscellaneous
NASA Advisory Council
In response to the Apollo 1 accident, which killed three astronauts 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 the aftermath of the Shuttle Columbia disaster, Congress required that the ASAP
submit an annual report to the NASA Administrator and to Congress.[216] By 1971,
NASA had also established the Space Program Advisory Council and the Research and
Technology Advisory Council to provide the administrator with advisory committee
support. In 1977, the latter two were combined to form the NASA Advisory Council
(NAC).[217] The NASA Authorization Act of 2014 reaffirmed the importance of ASAP.

Use of the metric system

US law requires the International System of Units to be used in all U.S. Government
programs, "except where impractical".[218]

In 1969, the Apollo 11 landed on the Moon using a mix of United States customary
units and metric units. In the 1980s, NASA started the transition towards the
metric system, but was still using both systems in the 1990s.[219][220] On
September 23, 1999, a unit mixup between US and SI units resulted in the loss of
the Mars Climate Orbiter.[221]

In August 2007, NASA stated that all future missions and explorations of the Moon
would be done entirely using the SI system. This was done to improve cooperation
with space agencies of other countries that already use the metric system.[222]

As of 2007, NASA is predominantly working with SI units, but some projects still
use English units, and some, including the International Space Station, use a mix
of both.[223]

Partnership with the United States Space Force

Main article: United States Space Force

Space Force Delta

The United States Space Force (USSF) is the space service branch of the United
States Armed Forces, while the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for civil
spaceflight. NASA and the Space Force's predecessors in the Air Force have a long-
standing cooperative relationship, with the Space Force supporting NASA launches
out of Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and Vandenberg
Space Force Base, to include range support and rescue operations from Task Force
45.[224] NASA and the Space Force also partner on matters such as defending Earth
from asteroids.[225] Space Force members can be NASA astronauts, with Colonel
Michael S. Hopkins, the commander of SpaceX Crew-1, commissioned into the Space
Force from the International Space Station on 18 December 2020.[226][227][228] In
September 2020, the Space Force and NASA signed a memorandum of understanding
formally acknowledging the joint role of both agencies. This new memorandum
replaced a similar document signed in 2006 between NASA and Air Force Space
Command.[229][230]

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

This section is an excerpt from Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on science and
technology § NASA.[edit]
NASA announced the temporary closure of all visitor complexes at its field centers
until further notice and asked all non-critical personnel to work from home if
possible. Production and manufacturing of the Space Launch System at the Michoud
Assembly Facility has been halted,[231][232] and further delays are expected for
the James Webb Space Telescope,[233] although work resumed on June 3, 2020.[234]

The majority of Johnson Space Center personnel have transitioned to

telecommunicating, and mission-critical personnel on the International Space
Station have been ordered to reside in the mission control room until further
notice. Station operations are relatively unaffected, but astronauts on new
expeditions are subject to longer more stringent pre-flight quarantine.[235]
Gallery
Observations

Various nebulae observed from a NASA space telescope

1 Ceres

Pluto
Past and current spacecraft

Hardware comparison of Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury[note 3]

Hubble Space Telescope, astronomy observatory in Earth orbit since 1990. Also
visited by the Space Shuttle

Curiosity rover, roving Mars since 2012

Perseverance rover

Planned spacecraft

Orion spacecraft

Space Launch System rocket

James Webb Space Telescope

Lunar Gateway space station

Concepts
NASA has developed oftentimes elaborate plans and technology concepts, some of
which become worked into real plans.

Concept of cargo transport from Space Shuttle to Nuclear Shuttle, 1960s

Space Tug concept, 1970s

Vision mission for an interstellar precursor spacecraft by NASA, 2000s

Langley's Mars Ice Dome design for a Mars habitat, 2010s

See also
flag United States portal
icon Politics portal
Spaceflight portal
List of crewed spacecraft – Wikipedia list article
List of United States rockets
Articles about NASA
Astronomy Picture of the Day – website
List of NASA aircraft – Wikipedia list article
NASA Advanced Space Transportation Program
NASA Art Program
NASA Research Park – research park near San Jose, California
NASA TV – Television channels of NASA
NASAcast
TechPort (NASA) – Technology Portfolio System
Related agencies
Department of Defense Manned Space Flight Support Office
European Space Agency – European organisation dedicated to the exploration of space
Indian Space Research Organisation – India's national space agency
Roscosmos – Space agency of Russia
United States Space Force – Space service branch of the United States Armed Forces
Explanatory notes
NASA is an independent agency that is not a part of any executive department, but
reports directly to the President.[5][6]
The descent stage of the LM stayed on the Moon after landing, while the ascent
stage brought the two astronauts back to the CSM and then fell back to the Moon.
From left to right: Launch vehicle of Apollo (Saturn 5), Gemini (Titan 2) and
Mercury (Atlas). Left, top-down: Spacecraft of Apollo, Gemini and Mercury. The
Saturn IB and Mercury-Redstone launch vehicles are left out.
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Further reading
Library resources about
NASA
Resources in your library
Resources in other libraries
Alexander, Joseph K. Science Advice to NASA: Conflict, Consensus, Partnership,
Leadership (2019) excerpt
Bizony, Piers et al. The NASA Archives. 60 Years in Space (2019)
Brady, Kevin M. "NASA Launches Houston into Orbit How America's Space Program
Contributed to Southeast Texas's Economic Growth, Scientific Development, and
Modernization during the Late Twentieth Century." Journal of the West (2018) 57#4
pp 13–54.
Bromberg, Joan Lisa. NASA and the Space Industry (Johns Hopkins UP, 1999).
Clemons, Jack. Safely to Earth: The Men and Women Who Brought the Astronauts Home
(2018) excerpt
Dick, Steven J., and Roger D. Launius, eds. Critical Issues in the History of
Spaceflight (NASA, 2006)
Launius, Roger D. "Eisenhower, Sputnik, and the Creation of NASA." Prologue-
Quarterly of the National Archives 28.2 (1996): 127-143.
Pyle, Rod. Space 2.0: How Private Spaceflight, a Resurgent NASA, and International
Partners are Creating a New Space Age (2019), overview of space exploration excerpt
Spencer, Brett. "The Book and the Rocket: The Symbiotic Relationship between
American Public Libraries and the Space Program, 1950–2015," Information & Culture
51, no. 4 (2016): 550–82.
Weinzierl, Matthew. "Space, the final economic frontier." Journal of Economic
Perspectives 32.2 (2018): 173-92. online, review of economics literature
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NASA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search
For other uses, see NASA (disambiguation).
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
A blue sphere with stars, a yellow planet with a white moon; a red chevron
representing wings, and an orbiting spacecraft; surrounded by a white border with
"NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION U.S.A." in red letters
NASA seal
A blue sphere with stars, white letters N-A-S-A in Helvetica font; a red chevron
representing wings, and an orbiting spacecraft
NASA "meatball" insignia
A red line forming stylized letters N-A-S-A
NASA "worm" logotype
NASA HQ Building.jpg
NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Agency overview
Abbreviation NASA
Formed July 29, 1958; 63 years ago
Preceding agency
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (1915–1958)[1]
Type Space agency
Jurisdiction United States Federal Government
Headquarters Washington, D.C.
38°52′59″N 77°0′59″WCoordinates: 38°52′59″N 77°0′59″W
Motto For the Benefit of All[2]
Administrator Bill Nelson
Deputy Administrator Pamela Melroy
Primary spaceports
John F. Kennedy Space CenterCape Canaveral Space Force StationVandenberg Space
Force Base
Owner United States
Employees 17,373 (2020)[3]
Annual budget Increase US$22.629 billion (2020)[4]
Website NASA.gov
Part of a series on the
United States Space Program
NASA logo.svgUnited States Space Force logo.svg
NASAU.S. Space Force
Human spaceflight programs
Robotic spaceflight programs
NASA Astronaut Corps
Spaceports
Space launch vehicles
National security space
Civil space
Commercial space industry
vte
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA /ˈnæsə/) is an independent
agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civilian space program,
as well as aeronautics and space research.[note 1]

NASA was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency was to have a distinctly civilian orientation,
encouraging peaceful applications in space science.[7][8][9] Since its
establishment, most US space exploration efforts have been led by NASA, including
the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space
Shuttle. NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the
development of the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System, Commercial Crew
vehicles, and the planned Lunar Gateway space station. The agency is also
responsible for the Launch Services Program, which provides oversight of launch
operations and countdown management for uncrewed NASA launches.

NASA's science is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing
System;[10] advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission
Directorate's Heliophysics Research Program;[11] exploring bodies throughout the
Solar System with advanced robotic spacecraft such as New Horizons;[12] and
researching astrophysics topics, such as the Big Bang, through the Great
Observatories and associated programs.[13]

Contents
1 History
1.1 Creation
1.1.1 Insignia
1.2 Foundational human spaceflight
1.2.1 X-15 program (1954–1968)
1.2.2 Project Mercury (1958–1963)
1.2.3 Project Gemini (1961–1966)
1.2.4 Project Apollo (1960–1972)
1.2.5 Skylab (1965–1979)
1.2.6 Apollo-Soyuz (1972–1975)
2 Leadership
3 Facilities
3.1 Inherited from NACA
3.2 Transferred from the Army
3.3 Built by NASA
4 Modern human spaceflight programs
4.1 Space Shuttle program (1972–2011)
4.2 International Space Station (1993–present)
4.3 Constellation program (2005–2010)
4.4 Commercial Crew Program (2011–present)
4.5 Journey to Mars (2010–2017)
4.6 Artemis program (2017–present)
5 Satellites, probes, rovers, launch vehicles
5.1 Earth, Moon, and L2 point
5.2 Inner solar system (including Mars)
5.3 Outer solar system
6 Near-Earth object detection
7 Research
8 Environmental impact
9 Goals and directives
9.1 NASA Authorization Act of 2017
9.2 Space Policy Directive 1
9.3 Goals
10 Budget
11 Media
11.1 NASAcast
11.2 NASA EDGE
11.2.1 Cast and crew
11.2.2 Reception
11.2.3 Interactive projects
12 Miscellaneous
12.1 NASA Advisory Council
12.2 Use of the metric system
12.3 Partnership with the United States Space Force
12.4 Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
13 Gallery
13.1 Observations
13.2 Past and current spacecraft
13.3 Planned spacecraft
13.4 Concepts
14 See also
14.1 Articles about NASA
14.2 Related agencies
15 Explanatory notes
16 References
17 Sources
18 Further reading
19 External links
History
Creation
Main article: Creation of NASA
File:NASA 60th- How It All Began.webm
Short documentary about NASA
Beginning in 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) began
experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1.[14] In the early
1950s, there was challenge to launch an artificial satellite for the International
Geophysical Year (1957–1958). An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard.
After the Soviet space program's launch of the world's first artificial 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 national security and technological leadership (known as the "Sputnik crisis"),
urged immediate and swift action; President Dwight D. Eisenhower counseled more
deliberate measures. The result was a consensus that the White House forged among
key interest groups, including scientists committed to basic research; the Pentagon
which had to match the Soviet military achievement; corporate America looking for
new business; and a strong new trend in public opinion looking up to space
exploration.[15]

On January 12, 1958, NACA organized a "Special Committee on Space Technology,"

headed by Guyford Stever.[9] On January 14, 1958, NACA Director Hugh Dryden
published "A National Research Program for Space Technology," stating,[16]

It is of great urgency and importance to our country both from consideration of our
prestige as a nation as well as military necessity that this challenge [Sputnik] be
met by an energetic program of research and development for the conquest of
space ... It is accordingly proposed that the scientific research be the
responsibility of a national civilian agency ... NACA is capable, by rapid
extension and expansion of its effort, of providing leadership in space technology.
[16]

While this new federal agency would conduct all non-military space activity, the
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was created in February 1958 to develop
space technology for military application.[17]

On July 29, 1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act,
establishing NASA. When it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA absorbed the
43-year-old NACA intact; its 8,000 employees, an annual budget of US$100 million,
three major research laboratories (Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Ames
Aeronautical Laboratory, and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory) and two small test
facilities.[18] Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States
Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA. A significant contributor to
NASA's entry into the Space Race with the Soviet Union was the technology from the
German rocket program led by Wernher von Braun, who was now working for the Army
Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), which in turn incorporated the technology of
American scientist Robert Goddard's earlier works.[19] Earlier research efforts
within the US Air Force[18] and many of ARPA's early space programs were also
transferred to NASA.[20] In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, a contractor facility operated by the California Institute
of Technology.[18]

Insignia
Main article: NASA insignia
The NASA seal was approved by Eisenhower in 1959, and slightly modified by
President John F. Kennedy in 1961.[21][22] NASA's first logo was designed by the
head of Lewis' Research Reports Division, James Modarelli, as a simplification of
the 1959 seal.[23] In 1975, the original logo was first dubbed "the meatball" to
distinguish it from the newly designed "worm" logo which replaced it. The
"meatball" returned to official use in 1992.[23] The "worm" was brought out of
retirement in 2020 by administrator Jim Bridenstine.[24]

Foundational human spaceflight

X-15 program (1954–1968)
Main article: North American X-15

X-15 in powered flight

NASA inherited NACA's X-15 experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research
aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force and Navy. Three planes
were built starting in 1955. The X-15 was drop-launched from the wing of one of two
NASA Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses, NB52A tail number 52-003, and NB52B, tail number
52-008 (known as the Balls 8). Release took place at an altitude of about 45,000
feet (14 km) and a speed of about 500 miles per hour (805 km/h).[25]

Twelve pilots were selected for the program from the Air Force, Navy, and NACA. A
total of 199 flights were made between June 1959 and December 1968, resulting in
the official world record for the highest speed ever reached by a crewed powered
aircraft (current as of 2014), and a maximum speed of Mach 6.72, 4,519 miles per
hour (7,273 km/h).[26] The altitude record for X-15 was 354,200 feet (107.96 km).
[27] Eight of the pilots were awarded Air Force astronaut wings for flying above
260,000 feet (80 km), and two flights by Joseph A. Walker exceeded 100 kilometers
(330,000 ft), qualifying as spaceflight according to the International Aeronautical
Federation. The X-15 program employed mechanical techniques used in the later
crewed spaceflight programs, including reaction control system jets for controlling
the orientation of a spacecraft, space suits, and horizon definition for
navigation.[27] The reentry and landing data collected were valuable to NASA for
designing the Space Shuttle.[28]

Project Mercury (1958–1963)

Main article: Project Mercury

L. Gordon Cooper, photographed by a slow-scan television camera aboard Faith 7,

1963
In 1958, NASA formed an engineering group, the Space Task Group, to manage their
human spaceflight programs under the direction of Robert Gilruth. Their earliest
programs were conducted under the pressure of the Cold War competition between the
U.S. and the Soviet Union. NASA inherited the US Air Force's Man in Space Soonest
program, which considered many crewed spacecraft designs ranging from rocket planes
like the X-15, to small ballistic space capsules.[29] By 1958, the space plane
concepts were eliminated in favor of the ballistic capsule,[30] and NASA renamed it
Project Mercury. The first seven astronauts were selected among candidates from the
Navy, Air Force and Marine test pilot programs. On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan
Shepard became the first American in space aboard a capsule he named Freedom 7,
launched on a Redstone booster on a 15-minute ballistic (suborbital) flight.[31]
John Glenn became the first American to be launched into orbit, on an Atlas launch
vehicle on February 20, 1962, aboard Friendship 7.[32] Glenn completed three
orbits, after which three more orbital flights were made, culminating in L. Gordon
Cooper's 22-orbit flight Faith 7, May 15–16, 1963.[33] Katherine Johnson, Mary
Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan were three of the human computers doing calculations
on trajectories during the Space Race.[34][35][36] Johnson was well known for doing
trajectory calculations for John Glenn's mission in 1962, where she was running the
same equations by hand that were being run on the computer.[34]

Mercury's competition from the Soviet Union (USSR) was the single-pilot Vostok
spacecraft. They sent the first man in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, into a single
Earth orbit aboard Vostok 1 in April 1961, one month before Shepard's flight.[37]
In August 1962, they achieved an almost four-day record flight with Andriyan
Nikolayev aboard Vostok 3, and also conducted a concurrent Vostok 4 mission
carrying Pavel Popovich.

Project Gemini (1961–1966)

Main article: Project Gemini

Richard Gordon performs a spacewalk to attach a tether to the Agena Target Vehicle
on Gemini 11, 1966
Based on studies to grow the Mercury spacecraft capabilities to long-duration
flights, developing space rendezvous techniques, and precision Earth landing,
Project Gemini was started as a two-man program in 1961 to overcome the Soviets'
lead and to support the Apollo crewed lunar landing program, adding extravehicular
activity (EVA) and rendezvous and docking to its objectives. The first crewed
Gemini flight, Gemini 3, was flown by Gus Grissom and John Young on March 23, 1965.
[38] Nine missions followed in 1965 and 1966, demonstrating an endurance mission of
nearly fourteen days, rendezvous, docking, and practical EVA, and gathering medical
data on the effects of weightlessness on humans.[39][40]

Under the direction of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the USSR competed with
Gemini by converting their Vostok spacecraft into a two- or three-man Voskhod. They
succeeded in launching two crewed flights before Gemini's first flight, achieving a
three-cosmonaut flight in 1964 and the first EVA in 1965. After this, the program
was canceled, and Gemini caught up while spacecraft designer Sergei Korolev
developed the Soyuz spacecraft, their answer to Apollo.

Project Apollo (1960–1972)

Main article: Apollo program

Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, 1969

The U.S public's perception of the Soviet lead in the Space Race (by putting the
first man into space) motivated President John F. Kennedy[41] to ask the Congress
on May 25, 1961, to commit the federal government to a program to land a man on the
Moon by the end of the 1960s, which effectively launched the Apollo program.[42]

Apollo was one of the most expensive American scientific programs ever. It cost
more than $20 billion in 1960s dollars[43] or an estimated $225 billion in present-
day US dollars.[44] (In comparison, the Manhattan Project cost roughly $28.8
billion, accounting for inflation.)[44][45] It used the Saturn rockets as launch
vehicles, which were far bigger than the rockets built for previous projects.[46]
The spacecraft was also bigger; it had two main parts, the combined command and
service module (CSM) and the Apollo Lunar Module (LM). The LM was to be left on the
Moon and only the command module (CM) containing the three astronauts would return
to Earth.[note 2]

The second crewed mission, Apollo 8, brought astronauts for the first time in a
flight around the Moon in December 1968.[47] Shortly before, the Soviets had sent
an uncrewed spacecraft around the Moon.[48] On the next two missions docking
maneuvers that were needed for the Moon landing were practiced[49][50] and then
finally the Moon landing was made on the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969.[51]

The first person to walk on the Moon was Neil Armstrong, who was followed 19
minutes later by Buzz Aldrin, while Michael Collins orbited above. Five subsequent
Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last in December 1972.
Throughout these six Apollo spaceflights, twelve men walked on the Moon. These
missions returned a wealth of scientific data and 381.7 kilograms (842 lb) of lunar
samples. Topics covered by experiments performed included soil mechanics,
meteoroids, seismology, heat flow, lunar ranging, magnetic fields, and solar wind.
[52][page needed] The Moon landing marked the end of the space race; and as a
gesture, Armstrong mentioned mankind when he stepped down on the Moon.[53]

Apollo set major milestones in human spaceflight. It stands alone in sending crewed
missions beyond low Earth orbit, and landing humans on another celestial body.[54]
Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to orbit another celestial body, while
Apollo 17 marked the last moonwalk and the last crewed mission beyond low Earth
orbit. The program spurred advances in many areas of technology peripheral to
rocketry and crewed spaceflight, including avionics, telecommunications, and
computers. Apollo sparked interest in many fields of engineering and left many
physical facilities and machines developed for the program as landmarks. Many
objects and artifacts from the program are on display at various locations
throughout the world, notably at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museums.

Skylab (1965–1979)
Main article: Skylab

Skylab in 1974, seen from the departing Skylab 4 CSM.

Skylab was the United States' first and only independently built space station.[55]
Conceived in 1965 as a workshop to be constructed in space from a spent Saturn IB
upper stage, the 169,950 lb (77,088 kg) station was constructed on Earth and
launched on May 14, 1973, atop the first two stages of a Saturn V, into a 235-
nautical-mile (435 km) orbit inclined at 50° to the equator. Damaged during launch
by the loss of its thermal protection and one electricity-generating solar panel,
it was repaired to functionality by its first crew. It was occupied for a total of
171 days by 3 successive crews in 1973 and 1974.[55] It included a laboratory for
studying the effects of microgravity, and a solar observatory.[55] NASA planned to
have a Space Shuttle dock with it, and elevate Skylab to a higher safe altitude,
but the Shuttle was not ready for flight before Skylab's re-entry on July 11, 1979.
[56]

To reduce cost, NASA used one of the Saturn V rockets originally earmarked for a
canceled Apollo mission to launch the Skylab. Apollo spacecraft were used for
transporting astronauts to and from the station. Three three-man crews stayed
aboard the station for periods of 28, 59, and 84 days. Skylab's habitable volume
was 11,290 cubic feet (320 m3), which was 30.7 times bigger than that of the Apollo
Command Module.[56]

Apollo-Soyuz (1972–1975)
Main article: Apollo-Soyuz

Soviet and American crews with spacecraft model, 1975.

On May 24, 1972, US President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin
signed an agreement calling for a joint crewed space mission, and declaring intent
for all future international crewed spacecraft to be capable of docking with each
other.[57] This authorized the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), involving the
rendezvous and docking in Earth orbit of a surplus Apollo command and service
module with a Soyuz spacecraft. The mission took place in July 1975. This was the
last US human spaceflight until the first orbital flight of the Space Shuttle in
April 1981.[58]

The mission included both joint and separate scientific experiments and provided
useful engineering experience for future joint US–Russian space flights, such as
the Shuttle–Mir program[59] and the International Space Station.

Leadership
Main article: List of Administrators and Deputy Administrators of NASA
Administrator Bill Nelson
The agency's leader, NASA's administrator, is nominated by the President of the
United States subject to the approval of the US Senate,[60] and reports to him or
her and serves as a senior space science advisor. Though space exploration is
ostensibly non-partisan, the appointee usually is associated with the President's
political party (Democratic or Republican), and a new administrator is usually
chosen when the Presidency changes parties. The only exceptions to this have been:

Democrat Thomas O. Paine, acting administrator under Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson,

stayed on while Republican Richard Nixon tried but failed to get one of his own
choices to accept the job. Paine was confirmed by the Senate in March 1969 and
served through September 1970.[61]
Republican James C. Fletcher, appointed by Nixon and confirmed in April 1971,
stayed through May 1977 into the term of Democrat Jimmy Carter.
Daniel Goldin was appointed by Republican George H. W. Bush and stayed through the
entire administration of Democrat Bill Clinton.
Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr., associate administrator under Democrat Barack Obama, was
kept on as acting administrator by Republican Donald Trump until Trump's own
choice, Jim Bridenstine, was confirmed in April 2018.[62]
Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator under Donald Trump, filled the
administrator's chair until Democrat Joe Biden's nominee Bill Nelson was confirmed.
[63]
The first administrator was Dr. T. Keith Glennan, appointed by Republican President
Dwight D. Eisenhower. During his term he brought together the disparate projects in
American space development research.[64]

The second administrator, James E. Webb (1961–1968), appointed by President John F.

Kennedy, was a Democrat who first publicly served under President Harry S. Truman.
In order to implement the Apollo program to achieve Kennedy's Moon landing goal by
the end of the 1960s, Webb directed major management restructuring and facility
expansion, establishing the Houston Manned Spacecraft (Johnson) Center and the
Florida Launch Operations (Kennedy) Center. Capitalizing on Kennedy's legacy,
President Lyndon Johnson kept continuity with the Apollo program by keeping Webb on
when he succeeded Kennedy in November 1963. But Webb resigned in October 1968
before Apollo achieved its goal.

Organizational structure of NASA (2015)

James Fletcher supervised early planning of the Space Shuttle program during his
first term as administrator under President Nixon.[65] He was appointed for a
second term as administrator from May 1986 through April 1989 by President Ronald
Reagan to help the agency recover from the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[66]

Former astronaut Charles Bolden served as NASA's twelfth administrator from July
2009 to January 20, 2017.[67] Bolden is one of three former astronauts who became
NASA administrators, along with Richard H. Truly (served 1989–1992) and Frederick
D. Gregory (acting, 2005).

The agency's administration is located at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, and

provides overall guidance and direction.[68] Except under exceptional
circumstances, NASA civil service employees are required to be citizens of the
United States.[69]

Facilities
Main article: NASA facilities

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message)

NASA logo at JPL on November 17, 2020[70]

NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC provides overall guidance and political
leadership to the agency's ten field centers, through which all other facilities
are administered.[71] Four of these were inherited from NACA; two others were
transferred from the Army; and NASA commissioned and built the other four itself
shortly after its formation.

Inherited from NACA

Langley Research Center (LaRC), located in Hampton, Virginia. LaRC focuses on
aeronautical research, though the Apollo lunar lander was flight-tested at the
facility and a number of high-profile space missions have been planned and designed
on-site. LaRC was the original home of the Space Task Group.[72]

Ames Research Center (ARC) at Moffett Field was founded on December 20, 1939. The
center was named after Joseph Sweetman Ames, a founding member of the NACA. ARC is
one of NASA's 10 major field centers and is located in California's Silicon Valley.
Historically, Ames was founded to do wind-tunnel research on the aerodynamics of
propeller-driven aircraft; however, it has expanded its role to doing research and
technology in aeronautics, spaceflight, and information technology. It provides
leadership in astrobiology, small satellites, robotic lunar exploration,
intelligent/adaptive systems and thermal protection.

George W. Lewis Research Center The center's core competencies include air-
breathing and in-space propulsion and cryogenics, communications, power energy
storage and conversion, microgravity sciences, and advanced materials.

Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Facility (AFRC), established by NACA before 1946 and
located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is the home of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
(SCA), a modified Boeing 747 designed to carry a Space Shuttle orbiter back to
Kennedy Space Center after a landing at Edwards AFB. On January 16, 2014, the
center was renamed in honor of Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to walk on the
Moon.[73][74]

Langley Research Center

Ames Research Center wind tunnels

Transferred from the Army

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los
Angeles County, CA, is headquartered in the city of La Cañada Flintridge[75][76]
with a Pasadena mailing address. JPL is managed by the nearby California Institute
of Technology (Caltech). The Laboratory's primary function is the construction and
operation of robotic planetary spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and
astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating NASA's Deep Space Network.

George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), located on the Redstone Arsenal near
Huntsville, Alabama, is one of NASA's largest centers. MSFC is where the Saturn V
rocket and Spacelab were developed. Marshall is NASA's lead center for
International Space Station (ISS) design and assembly; payloads and related crew
training; and was the lead for Space Shuttle propulsion and its external tank. From
December 1959, it contained the Launch Operations Directorate, which moved to
Florida to become the Launch Operations Center on July 1, 1962.[77]
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, California

George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama

Built by NASA

The Goddard Institute for Space Studies of Columbia University in New York City
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), located in Greenbelt, Maryland, was
commissioned by NASA on March 1, 1959. It is the largest combined organization of
scientists and engineers in the United States dedicated to increasing knowledge of
the Earth, the Solar System, and the Universe via observations from space. GSFC is
a major U.S. laboratory for developing and operating unmanned scientific
spacecraft. GSFC also operates two spaceflight tracking and data acquisition
networks (the Space Network and the Near Earth Network), develops and maintains
advanced space and Earth science data information systems, and develops satellite
systems for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). External
facilities of the GSFC include the Wallops Flight Facility, the Goddard Institute
for Space Studies at Columbia University, and the Katherine Johnson Independent
Verification and Validation Facility.

John C. Stennis Space Center, originally the "Mississippi Test Facility", is

located in Hancock County, Mississippi, on the banks of the Pearl River at the
Mississippi–Louisiana border. Commissioned on October 25, 1961, it was NASA's
largest rocket engine test facility until the end of the Space Shuttle program. It
is currently used for rocket testing by over 30 local, state, national,
international, private, and public companies and agencies. It contains the NASA
Shared Services Center.[78]

Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) is the NASA center for human spaceflight training,
research and flight control. Created on November 1, 1961, the facility consists of
a complex of 100 buildings constructed in 1962–1963 on 1,620 acres (656 ha) of land
donated by Rice University in Houston, Texas.[79] The center grew out of the Space
Task Group formed soon after the creation of NASA to co-ordinate the US human
spaceflight program. It is home to the United States Astronaut Corps and is
responsible for training astronauts from the U.S. and its international partners,
and includes the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center.[79] The center
was renamed in honor of the late U.S. president and Texas native Lyndon B. Johnson
on February 19, 1973.[80][81]

John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), located west of Cape Canaveral Space Force
Station in Florida, is one of the best known NASA facilities. Named the "Launch
Operations Center" at its creation on July 1, 1962, it was renamed in honor of the
late U.S. president on November 29, 1963,[82][83] and has been the launch site for
every United States human space flight since 1968. KSC continues to manage and
operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program from
three pads at Cape Canaveral. Its Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) is the fourth-
largest structure in the world by volume[84] and was the largest when completed in
1965.[85] A total of 13,100 people worked at the center as of 2011. Approximately
2,100 are employees of the federal government; the rest are contractors.[86]

Subordinate facilities include the Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island,

Virginia; the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana; the White Sands
Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Deep Space Network stations in
Barstow, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia.

Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston

John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida

Modern human spaceflight programs

Space Shuttle program (1972–2011)
Main article: Space Shuttle program

Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery at the start of STS-120.

The Space Shuttle became the major focus of NASA in the late 1970s and the 1980s.
Originally planned as a frequently launchable, fully reusable vehicle, the design
was changed to use an expendable external propellant tank to reduce development
cost, and four Space Shuttle orbiters were built by 1985. The first to launch,
Columbia, did so on April 12, 1981, the 20th anniversary of the first human
spaceflight.[87]

Its major components were a spaceplane orbiter with an external fuel tank and two
solid-fuel launch rockets at its side. The external tank, which was bigger than the
spacecraft itself, was the only major component that was not reused. The shuttle
could orbit in altitudes of 185–643 km (115–400 miles)[88] and carry a maximum
payload (to low orbit) of 24,400 kg (54,000 lb).[89] Missions could last from 5 to
17 days and crews could be from 2 to 8 astronauts.[88]

On 20 missions (1983–1998) the Space Shuttle carried Spacelab, designed in

cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA). Spacelab was not designed for
independent orbital flight, but remained in the Shuttle's cargo bay as the
astronauts entered and left it through an airlock.[90] On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride
became the first American woman in space, on board the Space Shuttle Challenger
STS-7 mission.[91] Another famous series of missions were the launch and later
successful repair of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 and 1993, respectively.[92]

In 1995, Russian-American interaction resumed with the Shuttle–Mir missions (1995–

1998). Once more an American vehicle docked with a Russian craft, this time a full-
fledged space station. This cooperation has continued with Russia and the United
States as two of the biggest partners in the largest space station 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.

The Shuttle fleet lost two orbiters and 14 astronauts in two disasters: Challenger
in 1986, and Columbia in 2003.[93] While the 1986 loss was mitigated by building
the Space Shuttle Endeavour from replacement parts, NASA did not build another
orbiter to replace the second loss.[93] NASA's Space Shuttle program had 135
missions when the program ended with the successful landing of the Space Shuttle
Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011. The program spanned 30 years
with over 300 astronauts sent into space.[94]

International Space Station (1993–present)

Main article: International Space Station

The International Space Station as seen from Space Shuttle Endeavour during STS-
134.
The International Space Station (ISS) combines NASA's Space Station Freedom project
with the Soviet/Russian Mir-2 station, the European Columbus station, and the
Japanese Kibō laboratory module.[95] NASA originally planned in the 1980s to
develop Freedom alone, but US budget constraints led to the merger of these
projects into a single multi-national program in 1993, managed by NASA, the Russian
Federal Space Agency (RKA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the
European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).[96][97] The
station consists of pressurized modules, external trusses, solar arrays and other
components, which were manufactured in various factories around the world, and have
been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets, and the US Space Shuttles.[95]
The on-orbit assembly began in 1998, the completion of the US Orbital Segment
occurred in 2019 and the completion of the Russian Orbital Segment occurred in
2010, though there are some debates of whether new modules should be added in the
segment. The ownership and use of the space station is established in
intergovernmental treaties and agreements[98] which divide the station into two
areas and allow Russia to retain full ownership of the Russian Orbital Segment
(with the exception of Zarya),[99][100] with the US Orbital Segment allocated
between the other international partners.[98]

Long-duration missions to the ISS are referred to as ISS Expeditions. Expedition

crew members typically spend approximately six months on the ISS.[101] The initial
expedition crew size was three, temporarily decreased to two following the Columbia
disaster. Since May 2009, expedition crew size has been six crew members.[102] Crew
size is expected to be increased to seven, the number the ISS was designed for,
once the Commercial Crew Program becomes operational.[103] The ISS has been
continuously occupied for the past 21 years and 11 days, having exceeded the
previous record held by Mir; and has been visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from
15 different nations.[104][105]

The station can be seen from the Earth with the naked eye and, as of 2021, is the
largest artificial satellite in Earth orbit with a mass and volume greater than
that of any previous space station.[106] The Soyuz spacecraft delivers crew
members, stays docked for their half-year-long missions and then returns them home.
Several uncrewed cargo spacecraft provide service to the ISS; they are the Russian
Progress spacecraft which has done so since 2000, the European Automated Transfer
Vehicle (ATV) since 2008, the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) since 2009, the
SpaceX Dragon from 2012 until 2020, and the American Cygnus spacecraft since 2013.
The Space Shuttle, before its retirement, was also used for cargo transfer and
would often switch out expedition crew members, although it did not have the
capability to remain docked for the duration of their stay. Until another US crewed
spacecraft is ready, crew members will travel to and from the International Space
Station exclusively aboard the Soyuz.[107] The highest number of people occupying
the ISS has been thirteen; this occurred three times during the late Shuttle ISS
assembly missions.[108]

On March 29, 2019, the ISS was scheduled to have its first all-female spacewalk,
but it was delayed; Jessica Meir and Christina Koch performed the first all-female
spacewalk with on October 18, as part of a lengthy series of upgrades to the ISS'
power systems and physics observatories.[109][110][111] The ISS program is expected
to continue to 2030.[112]

Constellation program (2005–2010)

Main article: Constellation program

Artist's rendering of Altair lander landed on the Moon.

While the Space Shuttle program was still suspended after the loss of Columbia,
President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration including the
retirement of the Space Shuttle after completing the International Space Station.
The plan was enacted into law by the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 and directs
NASA to develop and launch the Crew Exploration Vehicle (later called Orion) by
2010, return Americans to the Moon by 2020, land on Mars as feasible, repair the
Hubble Space Telescope, and continue scientific investigation through robotic solar
system exploration, human presence on the ISS, Earth observation, and astrophysics
research. The crewed exploration goals prompted NASA's Constellation program.[113]

On December 4, 2006, NASA announced it was planning a permanent Moon base.[114] The
goal was to start building the Moon base by 2020, and by 2024, have a fully
functional base that would allow for crew rotations and in-situ resource
utilization. However, in 2009, the Augustine Committee found the program to be on
an "unsustainable trajectory."[115] In February 2010, President Barack Obama's
administration proposed eliminating public funds for it.[116]

Commercial Crew Program (2011–present)

This section is an excerpt from Commercial Crew Program.[edit]
NASA Commercial Crew Program logo (cropped).svg

The Crew Dragon (left) approaching the ISS. Starliner (right) being stacked for
testing.
The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) provides commercially-operated crew
transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under
contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between the expeditions of the
International Space Station program. American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX began
providing service in 2020, using the Crew Dragon spacecraft, and Boeing will also
join when its Boeing Starliner spacecraft becomes operational in 2023.

The spacecraft are owned and operated by the vendor, and crew transportation is
provided to NASA as a commercial service. Each mission sends up to four astronauts
to the ISS, with an option for a fifth passenger available. Operational flights
occur approximately once every six months for missions that last for approximately
six months. A spacecraft remains docked to the ISS during its mission, and missions
usually overlap by at least a few days. Between the retirement of the Space Shuttle
in 2011 and the first operational CCP mission in 2020, NASA relied on the Soyuz
program to transport its astronauts to the ISS.

A Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched to space atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 launch

vehicle and the capsule returns to Earth via splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. The
program's first operational mission, SpaceX Crew-1, launched on 16 November 2020.
Boeing Starliner spacecraft will participate after its final test flight, launched
atop an Atlas V N22 or Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle. Instead of a splashdown, a
Starliner capsule will return on land with airbags at one of four designated sites
in the western United States.

Development of the Commercial Crew Program began in 2011 as NASA shifted from
internal development of crewed vehicles to perform ISS crew rotation to commercial
industry development of transport to the ISS. A series of open competitions over
the following two years saw successful bids from Boeing, Blue Origin, Sierra
Nevada, and SpaceX to develop proposals for ISS crew transport vehicles. In 2014,
NASA awarded separate fixed-price contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to develop their
respective systems and to fly astronauts to the ISS. Each contract required four
successful demonstrations to achieve human rating for the system: pad abort,
uncrewed orbital test, launch abort, and crewed orbital test. Operational missions
were initially planned to begin in 2017, but delays required NASA to purchase
additional seats on Soyuz spacecraft up to Soyuz MS-17.
Journey to Mars (2010–2017)
President Obama's plan was to develop American private spaceflight capabilities to
get astronauts to the International Space Station, replace Russian Soyuz capsules,
and use Orion capsules for ISS emergency escape purposes. During a speech at the
Kennedy Space Center on April 15, 2010, Obama proposed a new heavy-lift vehicle
(HLV) to replace the formerly planned Ares V.[117] In his speech, Obama called for
a crewed mission to an asteroid as soon as 2025, and a crewed mission to Mars orbit
by the mid-2030s.[117] The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 was passed by Congress
and signed into law on October 11, 2010.[118] The act officially canceled the
Constellation program.[118]

The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 required a newly designed HLV be chosen within
90 days of its passing; the launch vehicle was given the name Space Launch System.
The new law also required the construction of a beyond low earth orbit spacecraft.
[119] The Orion spacecraft, which was being developed as part of the Constellation
program, was chosen to fulfill this role.[120] The Space Launch System is planned
to launch both Orion and other necessary hardware for missions beyond low Earth
orbit.[121] The SLS is to be upgraded over time with more powerful versions. The
initial capability of SLS is required to be able to lift 70 t (150,000 lb) (later
95 t or 209,000 lb) into LEO. It is then planned to be upgraded to 105 t (231,000
lb) and then eventually to 130 t (290,000 lb).[120][122] The Orion capsule first
flew on Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1), an uncrewed test flight that was
launched on December 5, 2014, atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket.[122]

NASA undertook a feasibility study in 2012 and developed the Asteroid Redirect
Mission as an uncrewed mission to move a boulder-sized near-Earth asteroid (or
boulder-sized chunk of a larger asteroid) into lunar orbit. The mission would
demonstrate ion thruster technology, and develop techniques that could be used for
planetary defense against an asteroid collision, as well as a cargo transport to
Mars in support of a future human mission. The Moon-orbiting boulder might then
later be visited by astronauts. The Asteroid Redirect Mission was cancelled in 2017
as part of the FY2018 NASA budget, the first one under President Donald Trump.[123]

The Orion spacecraft conducted an uncrewed test launch on a Delta IV Heavy rocket
in December 2014.[124]

Artemis program (2017–present)

Main article: Artemis program
An arrowhead combined with a depiction of a trans-lunar injection trajectory forms
an "A", with an "Artemis" wordmark printed underneath
Artemis program logo
Since 2017, NASA's crewed spaceflight program has been the Artemis program, which
involves the help of U.S. commercial spaceflight companies and international
partners such as ESA, JAXA, and CSA.[125] The goal of this program is to land "the
first woman and the next man" on the lunar south pole region by 2024. Artemis would
be the first step towards the long-term goal of establishing a sustainable presence
on the Moon, laying the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy,
and eventually sending humans to Mars.

The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle was held over from the canceled Constellation
program for Artemis. Artemis 1 is the uncrewed initial launch of Space Launch
System (SLS) that would also send an Orion spacecraft on a Distant Retrograde
Orbit, which, as of May 2020, is planned to launch no earlier than November 2021.
[126]

File:Mars Exploration Zones.webm

Concepts for how the first human landing site on Mars might evolve over the course
of multiple human expeditions
NASA's next major space initiative is to be the construction of the Lunar Gateway.
This initiative is to involve the construction of a new space station, which will
have many features in common with the current International Space Station, except
that it will be in orbit about the Moon, instead of the Earth.[127] This space
station will be designed primarily for non-continuous human habitation. The first
tentative steps of returning to crewed lunar missions will be Artemis 2, which is
to include the Orion crew module, propelled by the SLS, and is to launch in 2023.
[125] This mission is to be a 10-day mission planned to briefly place a crew of
four into a Lunar flyby.[122] The construction of the Gateway would begin with the
proposed Artemis 3, which is planned to deliver a crew of four to Lunar orbit along
with the first modules of the Gateway. This mission would last for up to 30 days.
NASA plans to build full scale deep space habitats such as the Lunar Gateway and
the Nautilus-X as part of its Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships
(NextSTEP) program.[128] In 2017, NASA was directed by the congressional NASA
Transition Authorization Act of 2017 to get humans to Mars-orbit (or to the Martian
surface) by the 2030s.[129][130]

In September 2020, as a part of the Artemis program, NASA outlined a plan to send
astronauts to the Moon by 2024. The astronauts are to travel in the Orion capsule,
launched on the SLS rocket.[131]

In February 2021, it was announced that "Blue Ghost Lander", a robotic device being
constructed in Cedar Park, Texas, will be sent to the moon's Mare Crisium in 2023
to help prepare for NASA's goal of returning to the Lunar surface.[132][133]

In November 2021, it was announced that the goal of landing sending astronauts to
the Moon by 2024 had slipped to No Earlier Than 2025 due to numerous factors.

Satellites, probes, rovers, launch vehicles

Main articles: List of NASA missions and List of uncrewed NASA missions
File:NASA 60th- What’s Out There.webm
Video of many of the uncrewed missions used to explore the outer reaches of space
NASA has conducted many uncrewed and robotic spaceflight programs throughout its
history. Uncrewed robotic programs launched the first American artificial
satellites into Earth orbit for scientific and communications purposes, and sent
scientific probes to explore the planets of the solar system, starting with Venus
and Mars, and including "grand tours" of the outer planets. More than 1,000
uncrewed missions have been designed to explore the Earth and the solar system.
[134]

Earth, Moon, and L2 point

Besides exploration, communication satellites have also been launched by NASA.[135]
The spacecraft have been launched directly from Earth or from orbiting space
shuttles, which could either deploy the satellite itself, or with a rocket stage to
take it farther.

The first US uncrewed satellite was Explorer 1, which started as an ABMA/JPL

project during the early part of the Space Race. It was launched in January 1958,
two months after Sputnik. At the creation of NASA, the Explorer project was
transferred to the agency and still continues to this day. Its missions have been
focusing on the Earth and the Sun, measuring magnetic fields and the solar wind,
among other aspects.[136] A more recent Earth satellite, not related to the
Explorer program, was the Hubble Space Telescope, which was brought into orbit in
1990.[137]

Cygnus and Cargo Dragon are used to resupply the International Space Station (ISS)
as part of NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program as of 2020. Cygnus is
manufactured by Northrop Grumman and launched on the Antares rocket. Cargo Dragon
is manufactured by SpaceX and launched on the Block 5 variant of Falcon 9. SpaceX
Dragon, also launched on Falcon 9, was used to resupply the ISS from 2010 to 2020.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is currently scheduled to launch in November
2021 on an Ariane 5 rocket.[138] It will be placed in a halo orbit circling the
Sun-Earth L2 point.[139]
Inner solar system (including Mars)

William H. Pickering, (center) JPL Director, President John F. Kennedy, (right).

NASA Administrator James E. Webb (background) discussing the Mariner program, with
a model presented.
The inner Solar System has been made the goal of at least four uncrewed programs.
The first was Mariner in the 1960s and 1970s, which made multiple visits to Venus
and Mars and one to Mercury. Probes launched under the Mariner program were also
the first to make a planetary flyby (Mariner 2), to take the first pictures from
another planet (Mariner 4), the first planetary orbiter (Mariner 9), and the first
to make a gravity assist maneuver (Mariner 10). This is a technique where the
satellite takes advantage of the gravity and velocity of planets to reach its
destination.[140]

The first successful landing on Mars was made by Viking 1 in 1976. Twenty years
later a rover was landed on Mars by Mars Pathfinder.[141] On November 26, 2011,
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission was successfully launched for Mars.
Curiosity successfully landed on Mars on August 6, 2012, and subsequently began its
search for evidence of past or present life on Mars.[142][143][144] On the horizon
of NASA's plans is the MAVEN spacecraft as part of the Mars Scout Program to study
the atmosphere of Mars.[145]

NASA's ongoing investigations include in-depth surveys of Mars (Perseverance and

InSight).

Outer solar system

Outside Mars, Jupiter was first visited by Pioneer 10 in 1973. More than 20 years
later Galileo sent a probe into the planet's atmosphere, and became the first
spacecraft to orbit the planet.[146] Pioneer 11 became the first spacecraft to
visit Saturn in 1979, with Voyager 2 making the first (and so far only) visits to
Uranus and Neptune in 1986 and 1989, respectively. The first spacecraft to leave
the solar system was Pioneer 10 in 1983. For a time it was the most distant
spacecraft, but it has since been surpassed by both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.[147]

Pioneers 10 and 11 and both Voyager probes carry messages from the Earth to
extraterrestrial life.[148][149] Communication can be difficult with deep space
travel. For instance, it took about three hours for a radio signal to reach the New
Horizons spacecraft when it was more than halfway to Pluto.[150] Contact with
Pioneer 10 was lost in 2003. Both Voyager probes continue to operate as they
explore the outer boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space.[151]

The New Horizons mission to Pluto was launched in 2006 and successfully performed a
flyby of Pluto on July 14, 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 flyby. Other active spacecraft are Juno for Jupiter and Dawn
for the asteroid belt. NASA continued to support in situ exploration beyond the
asteroid belt, including Pioneer and Voyager traverses into the unexplored trans-
Pluto region, and gas giant orbiters Galileo (1989–2003), Cassini (1997–2017), and
Juno (2011–present).

Near-Earth object detection

Further information: Near-Earth object
In 1994, there was a Congressional directive to find near-Earth objects (NEOs)
larger than 1 kilometer, and 90% of 1 kilometer sized asteroids are estimated to
have been found by 2010.[152]

In 1999, NASA visited 433 Eros with the NEAR spacecraft which entered its orbit in
2000, closely imaging the asteroid with various instruments at that time.[153] From
the 1990s NASA has run many NEO detection programs from Earth bases observatories,
greatly increasing the number of objects that have been detected. However, many
asteroids are very dark and the ones that are near the Sun are much harder to
detect from Earth-based telescopes which observe at night, and thus face away from
the Sun. NEOs inside Earth orbit only reflect a part of light also rather than
potentially a "full Moon" when they are behind the Earth and fully lit by the Sun.

In 2005, the US Congress mandated NASA to achieve by the year 2020 specific levels
of search completeness for discovering, cataloging, and characterizing dangerous
asteroids larger than 140 meters (460 ft) (Act of 2005, H.R. 1022; 109th),[154] but
no new funds were appropriated for this effort.[155] As of January 2019, it is
estimated about 40% of the NEOs of this size have been found, although since by its
nature the exact amount of NEOs are unknown the calculations are based on
predictions of how many there could be.[156]

One issue with NEO prediction is trying to estimate how many more are likely to be
found. In 2000, NASA reduced its estimate of the number of existing near-Earth
asteroids over one kilometer in diameter from 1,000–2,000 to 500–1,000.[157][158]
Shortly thereafter, the LINEAR survey provided an alternative estimate of 1,227+170
−90.[159] In 2011, on the basis of NEOWISE observations, the estimated number of
one-kilometer NEAs was narrowed to 981±19 (of which 93% had been discovered at the
time), while the number of NEAs larger than 140 meters across was estimated at
13,200±1,900.[160][161] The NEOWISE estimate differed from other estimates in
assuming a slightly lower average asteroid albedo, which produces larger estimated
diameters for the same asteroid brightness. This resulted in 911 then known
asteroids at least 1 km across, as opposed to the 830 then listed by CNEOS.[162] In
2017, using an improved statistical method, two studies reduced the estimated
number of NEAs brighter than absolute magnitude 17.75 (approximately over one
kilometer in diameter) to 921±20.[163][164] The estimated number of asteroids
brighter than absolute magnitude of 22.0 (approximately over 140 m across) rose to
27,100±2,200, double the WISE estimate,[164] of which about a third are known as of
2018. A problem with estimating the number of NEOs is that detections are
influenced by a number of factors.[165]

NASA turned the infrared space survey telescope WISE back on in 2013 to look for
NEOs, and it found some during the course of its operation. NEOcam competed in the
highly competitive Discovery program, which became more so due to a low mission
rate in the 2010s.

Due to the opposition effect over half (53%) of the discoveries of Near Earth
objects were made in 3.8% of the sky, in a 22.5° cone facing directly away from the
Sun, and the vast majority (87%) were made in 15% of the sky, in a 45° cone facing
away from the Sun.[166]
Research
Main article: NASA research
For technologies funded or otherwise supported by NASA, see NASA spinoff
technologies.
NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate conducts aeronautics research.

NASA has made use of technologies such as the multi-mission radioisotope

thermoelectric generator (MMRTG), which is a type of radioisotope thermoelectric
generator used to power spacecraft.[167] Shortages of the required plutonium-238
have curtailed deep space missions since the turn of the millennium.[168] An
example of a spacecraft that was not developed because of a shortage of this
material was New Horizons 2.[168]

The Earth science research program was created and first funded in the 1980s under
the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.[169][170]
NASA started an annual competition in 2014 named Cubes in Space.[171] It is jointly
organized by NASA and the global education company I Doodle Learning, with the
objective of teaching school students aged 11–18 to design and build scientific
experiments to be launched into space on a NASA rocket or balloon. On June 21, 2017
the world's smallest satellite, KalamSAT, was launched.[172]

NASA also researches and publishes on climate change.[173] Its statements concur
with the global scientific consensus that the global climate is warming.[174] Bob
Walker, who has advised US President Donald Trump on space issues, has advocated
that NASA should focus on space exploration and that its climate study operations
should be transferred to other agencies such as NOAA. Former NASA atmospheric
scientist J. Marshall Shepherd countered that Earth science study was built into
NASA's mission at its creation in the 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act.[175]
NASA won the 2020 Webby People's Voice Award for Green in the category Web.[176]

NASA contracted a third party to study the probability of using Free Space Optics
(FSO) to communicate with Optical (laser) Stations on the Ground (OGS) called
laser-com RF networks for satellite communications.[177]

On July 29, 2020, NASA requested American universities to propose new technologies
for extracting water from the lunar soil and developing power systems. The idea
will help the space agency conduct sustainable exploration of the Moon.[178]

Environmental impact
The exhaust gases produced by rocket propulsion systems, both in Earth's atmosphere
and in space, can adversely effect the Earth's environment. Some hypergolic rocket
propellants, such as hydrazine, are highly toxic prior to combustion, but decompose
into less toxic compounds after burning. Rockets using hydrocarbon fuels, such as
kerosene, release carbon dioxide and soot in their exhaust.[179] However, carbon
dioxide emissions are insignificant compared to those from other sources; on
average, the United States consumed 802,620,000 US gallons (3.0382×109 L) of liquid
fuels per day in 2014, while a single Falcon 9 rocket first stage burns around
25,000 US gallons (95,000 L) of kerosene fuel per launch.[180][181] Even if a
Falcon 9 were launched every single day, it would only represent 0.006% of liquid
fuel consumption (and carbon dioxide emissions) for that day. Additionally, the
exhaust from LOx- and LH2- fueled engines, like the SSME, is almost entirely water
vapor.[182] NASA addressed environmental concerns with its canceled Constellation
program in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act in 2011.[183] In
contrast, ion engines use harmless noble gases like xenon for propulsion.[184][185]

An example of NASA's environmental efforts is the NASA Sustainability Base.

Additionally, the Exploration Sciences Building was awarded the LEED Gold rating in
2010.[186] On May 8, 2003, the 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.[187]

In 2018, NASA along with other companies including Sensor Coating Systems, Pratt &
Whitney, Monitor Coating and UTRC launched the project CAUTION (CoAtings for Ultra
High Temperature detectION). This project aims to enhance the temperature range of
the Thermal History Coating up to 1,500 °C (2,730 °F) and beyond. The final goal of
this project is improving the safety of jet engines as well as increasing
efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions.[188]

Goals and directives

Further information: Space policy of the United States
Some of NASA's main directives have been the landing of a crewed spacecraft on the
Moon, the designing and construction of the Space Shuttle, and efforts to construct
a large, crewed space station. Typically, the major directives originated from the
intersection of scientific interest and advice, political interests, federal
funding concerns, and the public interest, which all together brought varying waves
of effort, often heavily swayed by technical developments, funding changes, and
world events. For example, in the 1980s, the Reagan administration announced a
directive with a major push to build a crewed space station, given the name Space
Station Freedom.[189] But, when the Cold War ended, Russia, the United States, and
other international partners came together to design and build the International
Space Station.

In the 2010s, major shifts in directives include the retirement of the Space
Shuttle, and the later development of a new crewed heavy-lift rocket, the Space
Launch System. Missions for the new Space Launch System have varied, but overall,
NASA's directives are similar to the Space Shuttle program as the primary goal and
desire is human spaceflight. Additionally, NASA's Space Exploration Initiative of
the 1980s opened new avenues of exploration focused on other galaxies.

For the coming decades, NASA's focus has gradually shifting towards eventual
exploration of Mars.[190] One of the technological options focused on was the
Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM).[190] ARM had largely been defunded in 2017, but
the key technologies developed for ARM would be utilized for future exploration,
notably on a solar electric propulsion system.[123][190]

Longer project execution timelines leave future executive administration officials

to execute on a directive, which can lead to directional mismanagement.[vague]

Previously, in the early 2000s, NASA worked towards a strategic plan called the
Constellation Program, but the program was defunded in the early 2010s.[191][192]
[193][194] In the 1990s, NASA's administration adopted an approach to planning
coined "Faster, Better, Cheaper".[195]

NASA Authorization Act of 2017

The NASA Authorization Act of 2017, which included $19.5 billion in funding for
that fiscal year, directed NASA to get humans near or on the surface of Mars by the
early 2030s.[196]

Though the agency is independent, the survival or discontinuation of projects can

depend directly on the will of the President.[197]

Space Policy Directive 1

In December 2017, on the 45th anniversary of the last crewed mission to the Moon's
surface, President Donald Trump approved a directive that includes a lunar mission
on the pathway to Mars and beyond.[190]

The directive I'm signing today will refocus America's space program on human
exploration and discovery. It marks an important step in returning American
astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972 for long-term exploration and
use. This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will
establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars. And perhaps, someday, to
many worlds beyond.

— President Donald Trump, 2017[198]

New NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine addressed this directive in an August 2018
speech where he focused on the sustainability aspects—going to the Moon to stay—
that are explicit in the directive, including taking advantage of US commercial
space capability that did not exist even five years ago, which have driven down
costs and increased access to space.[199]

Goals
Since 2011, NASA's strategic goals have been[200]
Extend and sustain human activities across the Solar System
Expand scientific understanding of the Earth and the universe
Create innovative new space technologies
Advance aeronautics research
Enable program and institutional capabilities to conduct NASA's aeronautics and
space activities
Share NASA with the public, educators, and students to provide opportunities to
participate
Budget
Main article: Budget of NASA

NASA's budget from 1958 to 2012 as a percentage of federal budget

An artist's conception, from NASA, of an astronaut planting a US flag on Mars. A

human mission to Mars has been discussed as a possible NASA mission since the
1960s.
NASA's share of the total federal budget peaked at approximately 4.41% in 1966
during the Apollo program, then rapidly declined to approximately 1% in 1975, and
stayed around that level through 1998.[197][201] The percentage then gradually
dropped, until leveling off again at around half a percent in 2006 (estimated in
2012 at 0.48% of the federal budget).[202] In a March 2012 hearing of the United
States Senate Science Committee, science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson testified
that "Right now, NASA's annual budget is half a penny on your tax dollar. For twice
that—a penny on a dollar—we can transform the country from a sullen, dispirited
nation, weary of economic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed its 20th century
birthright to dream of tomorrow."[203][204]

Despite this, public perception of NASA's budget differs significantly: a 1997 poll
indicated that most Americans believed that 20% of the federal budget went to NASA.
[205]

For Fiscal Year 2015, NASA received an appropriation of US$18.01 billion from
Congress—$549 million more than requested and approximately $350 million more than
the 2014 NASA budget passed by Congress.[206]

In Fiscal Year 2016, NASA received $19.3 billion.[207]

President Donald Trump signed the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017 in
March, which set the 2017 budget at around $19.5 billion.[207] The budget is also
reported as $19.3 billion for 2017, with $20.7 billion proposed for FY2018.[208]
[209]

Examples of some proposed FY2018 budgets:[209]

Exploration: $4.79 billion

Planetary science: $2.23 billion
Earth science: $1.92 billion
Aeronautics: $0.685 billion
Media
NASAcast
NASAcast is the official audio and video podcast of the NASA website. Created in
late 2005, the podcast service contains the latest audio and video features from
the NASA web site, including NASA TV's This Week at NASA and educational materials
produced by NASA. Additional NASA podcasts, such as Science@NASA, are also featured
and give subscribers an in-depth look at content by subject matter.[210]

NASA EDGE
NASA EDGE is a video podcast which explores different missions, technologies and
projects developed by NASA. The program was released by NASA on March 18, 2007,
and, as of August 2020, there have been 200 vodcasts produced. It is a public
outreach vodcast sponsored by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and
based out of the Exploration and Space Operations Directorate at Langley Research
Center in Hampton, Virginia. NASA EDGE takes an insiders look at current projects
and technologies from NASA facilities around the United States, and it is depicted
through personal interviews, on-scene broadcasts, computer animations, and personal
interviews with top scientists and engineers at NASA. The show explores the
contributions NASA has made to society as well as the progress of current projects
in materials and space exploration. NASA EDGE vodcasts can be downloaded from the
NASA website and from iTunes.

Cast and crew

Chris Giersch - host
Blair Allen - co-host and senior producer[211]
Franklin Fitzgerald - news anchor and "everyman"
Jaqueline Mirielle Cortez - special co-host
Ron Beard - director and "set therapist"
Don Morrison - audio/video engineer
Ryan Darden - Editor[212]
Reception
In its first year of production, the show was downloaded over 450,000 times. As of
February 2010, the average download rate is more than 420,000 per month, with over
one million downloads in December 2009 and January 2010.[213]

Interactive projects

NASA EDGE broadcasting live from White Sands Missile Range in 2010
NASA and the NASA EDGE have developed interactive programs designed to complement
the vodcast. The Lunar Electric Rover App allows users to drive a simulated Lunar
Electric Rover between objectives, and it provides information about and images of
the vehicle.[214] The NASA EDGE Widget provides a graphical user interface for
accessing NASA EDGE vodcasts, image galleries, and the program's Twitter feed, as
well as a live NASA news feed.[215]

Miscellaneous
NASA Advisory Council
In response to the Apollo 1 accident, which killed three astronauts 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 the aftermath of the Shuttle Columbia disaster, Congress required that the ASAP
submit an annual report to the NASA Administrator and to Congress.[216] By 1971,
NASA had also established the Space Program Advisory Council and the Research and
Technology Advisory Council to provide the administrator with advisory committee
support. In 1977, the latter two were combined to form the NASA Advisory Council
(NAC).[217] The NASA Authorization Act of 2014 reaffirmed the importance of ASAP.

Use of the metric system

US law requires the International System of Units to be used in all U.S. Government
programs, "except where impractical".[218]

In 1969, the Apollo 11 landed on the Moon using a mix of United States customary
units and metric units. In the 1980s, NASA started the transition towards the
metric system, but was still using both systems in the 1990s.[219][220] On
September 23, 1999, a unit mixup between US and SI units resulted in the loss of
the Mars Climate Orbiter.[221]

In August 2007, NASA stated that all future missions and explorations of the Moon
would be done entirely using the SI system. This was done to improve cooperation
with space agencies of other countries that already use the metric system.[222]
As of 2007, NASA is predominantly working with SI units, but some projects still
use English units, and some, including the International Space Station, use a mix
of both.[223]

Partnership with the United States Space Force

Main article: United States Space Force

Space Force Delta

The United States Space Force (USSF) is the space service branch of the United
States Armed Forces, while the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for civil
spaceflight. NASA and the Space Force's predecessors in the Air Force have a long-
standing cooperative relationship, with the Space Force supporting NASA launches
out of Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and Vandenberg
Space Force Base, to include range support and rescue operations from Task Force
45.[224] NASA and the Space Force also partner on matters such as defending Earth
from asteroids.[225] Space Force members can be NASA astronauts, with Colonel
Michael S. Hopkins, the commander of SpaceX Crew-1, commissioned into the Space
Force from the International Space Station on 18 December 2020.[226][227][228] In
September 2020, the Space Force and NASA signed a memorandum of understanding
formally acknowledging the joint role of both agencies. This new memorandum
replaced a similar document signed in 2006 between NASA and Air Force Space
Command.[229][230]

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

This section is an excerpt from Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on science and
technology § NASA.[edit]
NASA announced the temporary closure of all visitor complexes at its field centers
until further notice and asked all non-critical personnel to work from home if
possible. Production and manufacturing of the Space Launch System at the Michoud
Assembly Facility has been halted,[231][232] and further delays are expected for
the James Webb Space Telescope,[233] although work resumed on June 3, 2020.[234]

The majority of Johnson Space Center personnel have transitioned to

telecommunicating, and mission-critical personnel on the International Space
Station have been ordered to reside in the mission control room until further
notice. Station operations are relatively unaffected, but astronauts on new
expeditions are subject to longer more stringent pre-flight quarantine.[235]
Gallery
Observations

Various nebulae observed from a NASA space telescope

1 Ceres

Pluto

Past and current spacecraft

Hardware comparison of Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury[note 3]

Hubble Space Telescope, astronomy observatory in Earth orbit since 1990. Also
visited by the Space Shuttle

Curiosity rover, roving Mars since 2012

Perseverance rover

Planned spacecraft

Orion spacecraft

Space Launch System rocket

James Webb Space Telescope

Lunar Gateway space station

Concepts
NASA has developed oftentimes elaborate plans and technology concepts, some of
which become worked into real plans.

Concept of cargo transport from Space Shuttle to Nuclear Shuttle, 1960s

Space Tug concept, 1970s

Vision mission for an interstellar precursor spacecraft by NASA, 2000s

Langley's Mars Ice Dome design for a Mars habitat, 2010s

See also
flag United States portal
icon Politics portal
Spaceflight portal
List of crewed spacecraft – Wikipedia list article
List of United States rockets
Articles about NASA
Astronomy Picture of the Day – website
List of NASA aircraft – Wikipedia list article
NASA Advanced Space Transportation Program
NASA Art Program
NASA Research Park – research park near San Jose, California
NASA TV – Television channels of NASA
NASAcast
TechPort (NASA) – Technology Portfolio System
Related agencies
Department of Defense Manned Space Flight Support Office
European Space Agency – European organisation dedicated to the exploration of space
Indian Space Research Organisation – India's national space agency
Roscosmos – Space agency of Russia
United States Space Force – Space service branch of the United States Armed Forces
Explanatory notes
NASA is an independent agency that is not a part of any executive department, but
reports directly to the President.[5][6]
The descent stage of the LM stayed on the Moon after landing, while the ascent
stage brought the two astronauts back to the CSM and then fell back to the Moon.
From left to right: Launch vehicle of Apollo (Saturn 5), Gemini (Titan 2) and
Mercury (Atlas). Left, top-down: Spacecraft of Apollo, Gemini and Mercury. The
Saturn IB and Mercury-Redstone launch vehicles are left out.
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original on June 7, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
"NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP)". oiir.hq.nasa.gov. Archived from the
original on March 8, 2017. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
Mochinski, Ron (April 8, 2015). "About Us – Background and Charter". Archived from
the original on December 28, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
Administrator, NASA (June 7, 2013). "International System of Units - The Metric
Measurement System". NASA. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020.
Retrieved November 2, 2020.
Aberg, J. (October 1994). "NASA Technical Memorandum - Metrication in a Global
Environment" (PDF). NASA. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 30, 2021.
Retrieved August 30, 2021.
"CNN - Metric mishap caused loss of NASA orbiter - September 30, 1999".
edition.cnn.com. Archived from the original on February 18, 2020. Retrieved
February 13, 2020.
"Mars Climate Orbiter Failure Board Releases Report". Archived from the original
on January 30, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
"NASA – Metric Moon". Archived from the original on March 16, 2010.
"NASA Finally Goes Metric". Space.com. January 8, 2007. Archived from the original
on August 20, 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
Erwin, Sandra (May 12, 2020). "Space Force troops preparing for possibility of
having to rescue NASA astronauts". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on
September 27, 2021. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
Smith, Marcia (May 5, 2020). "NASA and Space Force to Work Together on Planetary
Defense". SpacePolicyOnline.com. Archived from the original on February 26, 2021.
Retrieved February 2, 2021.
Erwin, Sandra (October 1, 2020). "Space Force members can go to the moon, if
they're picked by NASA". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on September 27,
2021. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
Erwin, Sandra (October 28, 2020). "NASA's Crew-1 commander to be sworn into U.S.
Space Force from the International Space Station". SpaceNews. Archived from the
original on September 27, 2021. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
Kramer, Miriam (December 18, 2020). "Astronaut Mike Hopkins sworn into the Space
Force from orbit". Axios. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved
February 3, 2021.
"Memorandum of Understanding Between The National Aeronautics And Space
Administration and The United States Space Force" (PDF). nasa.gov. NASA. Archived
(PDF) from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
"NASA, US Space Force Establish Foundation for Broad Collaboration".
spaceforce.mil. USSF. September 22, 2020. Archived from the original on February
27, 2021. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
Northon, Karen (March 20, 2020). "NASA Leadership Assessing Mission Impacts of
Coronavirus". NASA. Archived from the original on March 23, 2020. Retrieved March
26, 2020.
"MAFspace". mafspace.msfc.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on March 21, 2020.
Retrieved March 25, 2020.
Clark, Stephen. "NASA confirms work stoppage on James Webb Space Telescope –
Spaceflight Now". Archived from the original on March 24, 2020. Retrieved March 25,
2020.
"Work on JWST ramps up again". SpaceNews. June 3, 2020.
"Johnson Space Center Taking Safety Precautions Amid Coronavirus". Houstonia
Magazine.
Sources
Catchpole, John E. (June 17, 2008). The International Space Station: Building for
the Future. Springer-Praxis. ISBN 978-0-387-78144-0.
Further reading
Library resources about
NASA
Resources in your library
Resources in other libraries
Alexander, Joseph K. Science Advice to NASA: Conflict, Consensus, Partnership,
Leadership (2019) excerpt
Bizony, Piers et al. The NASA Archives. 60 Years in Space (2019)
Brady, Kevin M. "NASA Launches Houston into Orbit How America's Space Program
Contributed to Southeast Texas's Economic Growth, Scientific Development, and
Modernization during the Late Twentieth Century." Journal of the West (2018) 57#4
pp 13–54.
Bromberg, Joan Lisa. NASA and the Space Industry (Johns Hopkins UP, 1999).
Clemons, Jack. Safely to Earth: The Men and Women Who Brought the Astronauts Home
(2018) excerpt
Dick, Steven J., and Roger D. Launius, eds. Critical Issues in the History of
Spaceflight (NASA, 2006)
Launius, Roger D. "Eisenhower, Sputnik, and the Creation of NASA." Prologue-
Quarterly of the National Archives 28.2 (1996): 127-143.
Pyle, Rod. Space 2.0: How Private Spaceflight, a Resurgent NASA, and International
Partners are Creating a New Space Age (2019), overview of space exploration excerpt
Spencer, Brett. "The Book and the Rocket: The Symbiotic Relationship between
American Public Libraries and the Space Program, 1950–2015," Information & Culture
51, no. 4 (2016): 550–82.
Weinzierl, Matthew. "Space, the final economic frontier." Journal of Economic
Perspectives 32.2 (2018): 173-92. online, review of economics literature
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NASA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search
For other uses, see NASA (disambiguation).
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
A blue sphere with stars, a yellow planet with a white moon; a red chevron
representing wings, and an orbiting spacecraft; surrounded by a white border with
"NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION U.S.A." in red letters
NASA seal
A blue sphere with stars, white letters N-A-S-A in Helvetica font; a red chevron
representing wings, and an orbiting spacecraft
NASA "meatball" insignia
A red line forming stylized letters N-A-S-A
NASA "worm" logotype
NASA HQ Building.jpg
NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Agency overview
Abbreviation NASA
Formed July 29, 1958; 63 years ago
Preceding agency
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (1915–1958)[1]
Type Space agency
Jurisdiction United States Federal Government
Headquarters Washington, D.C.
38°52′59″N 77°0′59″WCoordinates: 38°52′59″N 77°0′59″W
Motto For the Benefit of All[2]
Administrator Bill Nelson
Deputy Administrator Pamela Melroy
Primary spaceports
John F. Kennedy Space CenterCape Canaveral Space Force StationVandenberg Space
Force Base
Owner United States
Employees 17,373 (2020)[3]
Annual budget Increase US$22.629 billion (2020)[4]
Website NASA.gov
Part of a series on the
United States Space Program
NASA logo.svgUnited States Space Force logo.svg
NASAU.S. Space Force
Human spaceflight programs
Robotic spaceflight programs
NASA Astronaut Corps
Spaceports
Space launch vehicles
National security space
Civil space
Commercial space industry
vte
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA /ˈnæsə/) is an independent
agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civilian space program,
as well as aeronautics and space research.[note 1]

NASA was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency was to have a distinctly civilian orientation,
encouraging peaceful applications in space science.[7][8][9] Since its
establishment, most US space exploration efforts have been led by NASA, including
the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space
Shuttle. NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the
development of the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System, Commercial Crew
vehicles, and the planned Lunar Gateway space station. The agency is also
responsible for the Launch Services Program, which provides oversight of launch
operations and countdown management for uncrewed NASA launches.

NASA's science is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing
System;[10] advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission
Directorate's Heliophysics Research Program;[11] exploring bodies throughout the
Solar System with advanced robotic spacecraft such as New Horizons;[12] and
researching astrophysics topics, such as the Big Bang, through the Great
Observatories and associated programs.[13]

Contents
1 History
1.1 Creation
1.1.1 Insignia
1.2 Foundational human spaceflight
1.2.1 X-15 program (1954–1968)
1.2.2 Project Mercury (1958–1963)
1.2.3 Project Gemini (1961–1966)
1.2.4 Project Apollo (1960–1972)
1.2.5 Skylab (1965–1979)
1.2.6 Apollo-Soyuz (1972–1975)
2 Leadership
3 Facilities
3.1 Inherited from NACA
3.2 Transferred from the Army
3.3 Built by NASA
4 Modern human spaceflight programs
4.1 Space Shuttle program (1972–2011)
4.2 International Space Station (1993–present)
4.3 Constellation program (2005–2010)
4.4 Commercial Crew Program (2011–present)
4.5 Journey to Mars (2010–2017)
4.6 Artemis program (2017–present)
5 Satellites, probes, rovers, launch vehicles
5.1 Earth, Moon, and L2 point
5.2 Inner solar system (including Mars)
5.3 Outer solar system
6 Near-Earth object detection
7 Research
8 Environmental impact
9 Goals and directives
9.1 NASA Authorization Act of 2017
9.2 Space Policy Directive 1
9.3 Goals
10 Budget
11 Media
11.1 NASAcast
11.2 NASA EDGE
11.2.1 Cast and crew
11.2.2 Reception
11.2.3 Interactive projects
12 Miscellaneous
12.1 NASA Advisory Council
12.2 Use of the metric system
12.3 Partnership with the United States Space Force
12.4 Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
13 Gallery
13.1 Observations
13.2 Past and current spacecraft
13.3 Planned spacecraft
13.4 Concepts
14 See also
14.1 Articles about NASA
14.2 Related agencies
15 Explanatory notes
16 References
17 Sources
18 Further reading
19 External links
History
Creation
Main article: Creation of NASA
File:NASA 60th- How It All Began.webm
Short documentary about NASA
Beginning in 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) began
experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1.[14] In the early
1950s, there was challenge to launch an artificial satellite for the International
Geophysical Year (1957–1958). An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard.
After the Soviet space program's launch of the world's first artificial 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 national security and technological leadership (known as the "Sputnik crisis"),
urged immediate and swift action; President Dwight D. Eisenhower counseled more
deliberate measures. The result was a consensus that the White House forged among
key interest groups, including scientists committed to basic research; the Pentagon
which had to match the Soviet military achievement; corporate America looking for
new business; and a strong new trend in public opinion looking up to space
exploration.[15]

On January 12, 1958, NACA organized a "Special Committee on Space Technology,"

headed by Guyford Stever.[9] On January 14, 1958, NACA Director Hugh Dryden
published "A National Research Program for Space Technology," stating,[16]

It is of great urgency and importance to our country both from consideration of our
prestige as a nation as well as military necessity that this challenge [Sputnik] be
met by an energetic program of research and development for the conquest of
space ... It is accordingly proposed that the scientific research be the
responsibility of a national civilian agency ... NACA is capable, by rapid
extension and expansion of its effort, of providing leadership in space technology.
[16]

While this new federal agency would conduct all non-military space activity, the
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was created in February 1958 to develop
space technology for military application.[17]

On July 29, 1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act,
establishing NASA. When it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA absorbed the
43-year-old NACA intact; its 8,000 employees, an annual budget of US$100 million,
three major research laboratories (Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Ames
Aeronautical Laboratory, and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory) and two small test
facilities.[18] Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States
Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA. A significant contributor to
NASA's entry into the Space Race with the Soviet Union was the technology from the
German rocket program led by Wernher von Braun, who was now working for the Army
Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), which in turn incorporated the technology of
American scientist Robert Goddard's earlier works.[19] Earlier research efforts
within the US Air Force[18] and many of ARPA's early space programs were also
transferred to NASA.[20] In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, a contractor facility operated by the California Institute
of Technology.[18]

Insignia
Main article: NASA insignia
The NASA seal was approved by Eisenhower in 1959, and slightly modified by
President John F. Kennedy in 1961.[21][22] NASA's first logo was designed by the
head of Lewis' Research Reports Division, James Modarelli, as a simplification of
the 1959 seal.[23] In 1975, the original logo was first dubbed "the meatball" to
distinguish it from the newly designed "worm" logo which replaced it. The
"meatball" returned to official use in 1992.[23] The "worm" was brought out of
retirement in 2020 by administrator Jim Bridenstine.[24]
Foundational human spaceflight
X-15 program (1954–1968)
Main article: North American X-15

X-15 in powered flight

NASA inherited NACA's X-15 experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research
aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force and Navy. Three planes
were built starting in 1955. The X-15 was drop-launched from the wing of one of two
NASA Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses, NB52A tail number 52-003, and NB52B, tail number
52-008 (known as the Balls 8). Release took place at an altitude of about 45,000
feet (14 km) and a speed of about 500 miles per hour (805 km/h).[25]

Twelve pilots were selected for the program from the Air Force, Navy, and NACA. A
total of 199 flights were made between June 1959 and December 1968, resulting in
the official world record for the highest speed ever reached by a crewed powered
aircraft (current as of 2014), and a maximum speed of Mach 6.72, 4,519 miles per
hour (7,273 km/h).[26] The altitude record for X-15 was 354,200 feet (107.96 km).
[27] Eight of the pilots were awarded Air Force astronaut wings for flying above
260,000 feet (80 km), and two flights by Joseph A. Walker exceeded 100 kilometers
(330,000 ft), qualifying as spaceflight according to the International Aeronautical
Federation. The X-15 program employed mechanical techniques used in the later
crewed spaceflight programs, including reaction control system jets for controlling
the orientation of a spacecraft, space suits, and horizon definition for
navigation.[27] The reentry and landing data collected were valuable to NASA for
designing the Space Shuttle.[28]

Project Mercury (1958–1963)

Main article: Project Mercury

L. Gordon Cooper, photographed by a slow-scan television camera aboard Faith 7,

1963
In 1958, NASA formed an engineering group, the Space Task Group, to manage their
human spaceflight programs under the direction of Robert Gilruth. Their earliest
programs were conducted under the pressure of the Cold War competition between the
U.S. and the Soviet Union. NASA inherited the US Air Force's Man in Space Soonest
program, which considered many crewed spacecraft designs ranging from rocket planes
like the X-15, to small ballistic space capsules.[29] By 1958, the space plane
concepts were eliminated in favor of the ballistic capsule,[30] and NASA renamed it
Project Mercury. The first seven astronauts were selected among candidates from the
Navy, Air Force and Marine test pilot programs. On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan
Shepard became the first American in space aboard a capsule he named Freedom 7,
launched on a Redstone booster on a 15-minute ballistic (suborbital) flight.[31]
John Glenn became the first American to be launched into orbit, on an Atlas launch
vehicle on February 20, 1962, aboard Friendship 7.[32] Glenn completed three
orbits, after which three more orbital flights were made, culminating in L. Gordon
Cooper's 22-orbit flight Faith 7, May 15–16, 1963.[33] Katherine Johnson, Mary
Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan were three of the human computers doing calculations
on trajectories during the Space Race.[34][35][36] Johnson was well known for doing
trajectory calculations for John Glenn's mission in 1962, where she was running the
same equations by hand that were being run on the computer.[34]

Mercury's competition from the Soviet Union (USSR) was the single-pilot Vostok
spacecraft. They sent the first man in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, into a single
Earth orbit aboard Vostok 1 in April 1961, one month before Shepard's flight.[37]
In August 1962, they achieved an almost four-day record flight with Andriyan
Nikolayev aboard Vostok 3, and also conducted a concurrent Vostok 4 mission
carrying Pavel Popovich.

Project Gemini (1961–1966)

Main article: Project Gemini

Richard Gordon performs a spacewalk to attach a tether to the Agena Target Vehicle
on Gemini 11, 1966
Based on studies to grow the Mercury spacecraft capabilities to long-duration
flights, developing space rendezvous techniques, and precision Earth landing,
Project Gemini was started as a two-man program in 1961 to overcome the Soviets'
lead and to support the Apollo crewed lunar landing program, adding extravehicular
activity (EVA) and rendezvous and docking to its objectives. The first crewed
Gemini flight, Gemini 3, was flown by Gus Grissom and John Young on March 23, 1965.
[38] Nine missions followed in 1965 and 1966, demonstrating an endurance mission of
nearly fourteen days, rendezvous, docking, and practical EVA, and gathering medical
data on the effects of weightlessness on humans.[39][40]

Under the direction of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the USSR competed with
Gemini by converting their Vostok spacecraft into a two- or three-man Voskhod. They
succeeded in launching two crewed flights before Gemini's first flight, achieving a
three-cosmonaut flight in 1964 and the first EVA in 1965. After this, the program
was canceled, and Gemini caught up while spacecraft designer Sergei Korolev
developed the Soyuz spacecraft, their answer to Apollo.

Project Apollo (1960–1972)

Main article: Apollo program

Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, 1969

The U.S public's perception of the Soviet lead in the Space Race (by putting the
first man into space) motivated President John F. Kennedy[41] to ask the Congress
on May 25, 1961, to commit the federal government to a program to land a man on the
Moon by the end of the 1960s, which effectively launched the Apollo program.[42]

Apollo was one of the most expensive American scientific programs ever. It cost
more than $20 billion in 1960s dollars[43] or an estimated $225 billion in present-
day US dollars.[44] (In comparison, the Manhattan Project cost roughly $28.8
billion, accounting for inflation.)[44][45] It used the Saturn rockets as launch
vehicles, which were far bigger than the rockets built for previous projects.[46]
The spacecraft was also bigger; it had two main parts, the combined command and
service module (CSM) and the Apollo Lunar Module (LM). The LM was to be left on the
Moon and only the command module (CM) containing the three astronauts would return
to Earth.[note 2]

The second crewed mission, Apollo 8, brought astronauts for the first time in a
flight around the Moon in December 1968.[47] Shortly before, the Soviets had sent
an uncrewed spacecraft around the Moon.[48] On the next two missions docking
maneuvers that were needed for the Moon landing were practiced[49][50] and then
finally the Moon landing was made on the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969.[51]

The first person to walk on the Moon was Neil Armstrong, who was followed 19
minutes later by Buzz Aldrin, while Michael Collins orbited above. Five subsequent
Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last in December 1972.
Throughout these six Apollo spaceflights, twelve men walked on the Moon. These
missions returned a wealth of scientific data and 381.7 kilograms (842 lb) of lunar
samples. Topics covered by experiments performed included soil mechanics,
meteoroids, seismology, heat flow, lunar ranging, magnetic fields, and solar wind.
[52][page needed] The Moon landing marked the end of the space race; and as a
gesture, Armstrong mentioned mankind when he stepped down on the Moon.[53]

Apollo set major milestones in human spaceflight. It stands alone in sending crewed
missions beyond low Earth orbit, and landing humans on another celestial body.[54]
Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to orbit another celestial body, while
Apollo 17 marked the last moonwalk and the last crewed mission beyond low Earth
orbit. The program spurred advances in many areas of technology peripheral to
rocketry and crewed spaceflight, including avionics, telecommunications, and
computers. Apollo sparked interest in many fields of engineering and left many
physical facilities and machines developed for the program as landmarks. Many
objects and artifacts from the program are on display at various locations
throughout the world, notably at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museums.

Skylab (1965–1979)
Main article: Skylab

Skylab in 1974, seen from the departing Skylab 4 CSM.

Skylab was the United States' first and only independently built space station.[55]
Conceived in 1965 as a workshop to be constructed in space from a spent Saturn IB
upper stage, the 169,950 lb (77,088 kg) station was constructed on Earth and
launched on May 14, 1973, atop the first two stages of a Saturn V, into a 235-
nautical-mile (435 km) orbit inclined at 50° to the equator. Damaged during launch
by the loss of its thermal protection and one electricity-generating solar panel,
it was repaired to functionality by its first crew. It was occupied for a total of
171 days by 3 successive crews in 1973 and 1974.[55] It included a laboratory for
studying the effects of microgravity, and a solar observatory.[55] NASA planned to
have a Space Shuttle dock with it, and elevate Skylab to a higher safe altitude,
but the Shuttle was not ready for flight before Skylab's re-entry on July 11, 1979.
[56]

To reduce cost, NASA used one of the Saturn V rockets originally earmarked for a
canceled Apollo mission to launch the Skylab. Apollo spacecraft were used for
transporting astronauts to and from the station. Three three-man crews stayed
aboard the station for periods of 28, 59, and 84 days. Skylab's habitable volume
was 11,290 cubic feet (320 m3), which was 30.7 times bigger than that of the Apollo
Command Module.[56]

Apollo-Soyuz (1972–1975)
Main article: Apollo-Soyuz

Soviet and American crews with spacecraft model, 1975.

On May 24, 1972, US President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin
signed an agreement calling for a joint crewed space mission, and declaring intent
for all future international crewed spacecraft to be capable of docking with each
other.[57] This authorized the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), involving the
rendezvous and docking in Earth orbit of a surplus Apollo command and service
module with a Soyuz spacecraft. The mission took place in July 1975. This was the
last US human spaceflight until the first orbital flight of the Space Shuttle in
April 1981.[58]

The mission included both joint and separate scientific experiments and provided
useful engineering experience for future joint US–Russian space flights, such as
the Shuttle–Mir program[59] and the International Space Station.

Leadership
Main article: List of Administrators and Deputy Administrators of NASA

Administrator Bill Nelson

The agency's leader, NASA's administrator, is nominated by the President of the
United States subject to the approval of the US Senate,[60] and reports to him or
her and serves as a senior space science advisor. Though space exploration is
ostensibly non-partisan, the appointee usually is associated with the President's
political party (Democratic or Republican), and a new administrator is usually
chosen when the Presidency changes parties. The only exceptions to this have been:
Democrat Thomas O. Paine, acting administrator under Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson,
stayed on while Republican Richard Nixon tried but failed to get one of his own
choices to accept the job. Paine was confirmed by the Senate in March 1969 and
served through September 1970.[61]
Republican James C. Fletcher, appointed by Nixon and confirmed in April 1971,
stayed through May 1977 into the term of Democrat Jimmy Carter.
Daniel Goldin was appointed by Republican George H. W. Bush and stayed through the
entire administration of Democrat Bill Clinton.
Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr., associate administrator under Democrat Barack Obama, was
kept on as acting administrator by Republican Donald Trump until Trump's own
choice, Jim Bridenstine, was confirmed in April 2018.[62]
Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator under Donald Trump, filled the
administrator's chair until Democrat Joe Biden's nominee Bill Nelson was confirmed.
[63]
The first administrator was Dr. T. Keith Glennan, appointed by Republican President
Dwight D. Eisenhower. During his term he brought together the disparate projects in
American space development research.[64]

The second administrator, James E. Webb (1961–1968), appointed by President John F.

Kennedy, was a Democrat who first publicly served under President Harry S. Truman.
In order to implement the Apollo program to achieve Kennedy's Moon landing goal by
the end of the 1960s, Webb directed major management restructuring and facility
expansion, establishing the Houston Manned Spacecraft (Johnson) Center and the
Florida Launch Operations (Kennedy) Center. Capitalizing on Kennedy's legacy,
President Lyndon Johnson kept continuity with the Apollo program by keeping Webb on
when he succeeded Kennedy in November 1963. But Webb resigned in October 1968
before Apollo achieved its goal.

Organizational structure of NASA (2015)

James Fletcher supervised early planning of the Space Shuttle program during his
first term as administrator under President Nixon.[65] He was appointed for a
second term as administrator from May 1986 through April 1989 by President Ronald
Reagan to help the agency recover from the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[66]

Former astronaut Charles Bolden served as NASA's twelfth administrator from July
2009 to January 20, 2017.[67] Bolden is one of three former astronauts who became
NASA administrators, along with Richard H. Truly (served 1989–1992) and Frederick
D. Gregory (acting, 2005).

The agency's administration is located at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, and

provides overall guidance and direction.[68] Except under exceptional
circumstances, NASA civil service employees are required to be citizens of the
United States.[69]

Facilities
Main article: NASA facilities

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article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
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NASA logo at JPL on November 17, 2020[70]

NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC provides overall guidance and political
leadership to the agency's ten field centers, through which all other facilities
are administered.[71] Four of these were inherited from NACA; two others were
transferred from the Army; and NASA commissioned and built the other four itself
shortly after its formation.

Inherited from NACA

Langley Research Center (LaRC), located in Hampton, Virginia. LaRC focuses on
aeronautical research, though the Apollo lunar lander was flight-tested at the
facility and a number of high-profile space missions have been planned and designed
on-site. LaRC was the original home of the Space Task Group.[72]

Ames Research Center (ARC) at Moffett Field was founded on December 20, 1939. The
center was named after Joseph Sweetman Ames, a founding member of the NACA. ARC is
one of NASA's 10 major field centers and is located in California's Silicon Valley.
Historically, Ames was founded to do wind-tunnel research on the aerodynamics of
propeller-driven aircraft; however, it has expanded its role to doing research and
technology in aeronautics, spaceflight, and information technology. It provides
leadership in astrobiology, small satellites, robotic lunar exploration,
intelligent/adaptive systems and thermal protection.

George W. Lewis Research Center The center's core competencies include air-
breathing and in-space propulsion and cryogenics, communications, power energy
storage and conversion, microgravity sciences, and advanced materials.

Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Facility (AFRC), established by NACA before 1946 and
located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is the home of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
(SCA), a modified Boeing 747 designed to carry a Space Shuttle orbiter back to
Kennedy Space Center after a landing at Edwards AFB. On January 16, 2014, the
center was renamed in honor of Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to walk on the
Moon.[73][74]

Langley Research Center

Ames Research Center wind tunnels

Transferred from the Army

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los
Angeles County, CA, is headquartered in the city of La Cañada Flintridge[75][76]
with a Pasadena mailing address. JPL is managed by the nearby California Institute
of Technology (Caltech). The Laboratory's primary function is the construction and
operation of robotic planetary spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and
astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating NASA's Deep Space Network.

George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), located on the Redstone Arsenal near
Huntsville, Alabama, is one of NASA's largest centers. MSFC is where the Saturn V
rocket and Spacelab were developed. Marshall is NASA's lead center for
International Space Station (ISS) design and assembly; payloads and related crew
training; and was the lead for Space Shuttle propulsion and its external tank. From
December 1959, it contained the Launch Operations Directorate, which moved to
Florida to become the Launch Operations Center on July 1, 1962.[77]

Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, California

George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama

Built by NASA
The Goddard Institute for Space Studies of Columbia University in New York City
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), located in Greenbelt, Maryland, was
commissioned by NASA on March 1, 1959. It is the largest combined organization of
scientists and engineers in the United States dedicated to increasing knowledge of
the Earth, the Solar System, and the Universe via observations from space. GSFC is
a major U.S. laboratory for developing and operating unmanned scientific
spacecraft. GSFC also operates two spaceflight tracking and data acquisition
networks (the Space Network and the Near Earth Network), develops and maintains
advanced space and Earth science data information systems, and develops satellite
systems for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). External
facilities of the GSFC include the Wallops Flight Facility, the Goddard Institute
for Space Studies at Columbia University, and the Katherine Johnson Independent
Verification and Validation Facility.

John C. Stennis Space Center, originally the "Mississippi Test Facility", is

located in Hancock County, Mississippi, on the banks of the Pearl River at the
Mississippi–Louisiana border. Commissioned on October 25, 1961, it was NASA's
largest rocket engine test facility until the end of the Space Shuttle program. It
is currently used for rocket testing by over 30 local, state, national,
international, private, and public companies and agencies. It contains the NASA
Shared Services Center.[78]

Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) is the NASA center for human spaceflight training,
research and flight control. Created on November 1, 1961, the facility consists of
a complex of 100 buildings constructed in 1962–1963 on 1,620 acres (656 ha) of land
donated by Rice University in Houston, Texas.[79] The center grew out of the Space
Task Group formed soon after the creation of NASA to co-ordinate the US human
spaceflight program. It is home to the United States Astronaut Corps and is
responsible for training astronauts from the U.S. and its international partners,
and includes the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center.[79] The center
was renamed in honor of the late U.S. president and Texas native Lyndon B. Johnson
on February 19, 1973.[80][81]

John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), located west of Cape Canaveral Space Force
Station in Florida, is one of the best known NASA facilities. Named the "Launch
Operations Center" at its creation on July 1, 1962, it was renamed in honor of the
late U.S. president on November 29, 1963,[82][83] and has been the launch site for
every United States human space flight since 1968. KSC continues to manage and
operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program from
three pads at Cape Canaveral. Its Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) is the fourth-
largest structure in the world by volume[84] and was the largest when completed in
1965.[85] A total of 13,100 people worked at the center as of 2011. Approximately
2,100 are employees of the federal government; the rest are contractors.[86]

Subordinate facilities include the Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island,

Virginia; the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana; the White Sands
Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Deep Space Network stations in
Barstow, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia.

Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston

John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida

Modern human spaceflight programs

Space Shuttle program (1972–2011)
Main article: Space Shuttle program

Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery at the start of STS-120.

The Space Shuttle became the major focus of NASA in the late 1970s and the 1980s.
Originally planned as a frequently launchable, fully reusable vehicle, the design
was changed to use an expendable external propellant tank to reduce development
cost, and four Space Shuttle orbiters were built by 1985. The first to launch,
Columbia, did so on April 12, 1981, the 20th anniversary of the first human
spaceflight.[87]

Its major components were a spaceplane orbiter with an external fuel tank and two
solid-fuel launch rockets at its side. The external tank, which was bigger than the
spacecraft itself, was the only major component that was not reused. The shuttle
could orbit in altitudes of 185–643 km (115–400 miles)[88] and carry a maximum
payload (to low orbit) of 24,400 kg (54,000 lb).[89] Missions could last from 5 to
17 days and crews could be from 2 to 8 astronauts.[88]

On 20 missions (1983–1998) the Space Shuttle carried Spacelab, designed in

cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA). Spacelab was not designed for
independent orbital flight, but remained in the Shuttle's cargo bay as the
astronauts entered and left it through an airlock.[90] On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride
became the first American woman in space, on board the Space Shuttle Challenger
STS-7 mission.[91] Another famous series of missions were the launch and later
successful repair of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 and 1993, respectively.[92]

In 1995, Russian-American interaction resumed with the Shuttle–Mir missions (1995–

1998). Once more an American vehicle docked with a Russian craft, this time a full-
fledged space station. This cooperation has continued with Russia and the United
States as two of the biggest partners in the largest space station 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.

The Shuttle fleet lost two orbiters and 14 astronauts in two disasters: Challenger
in 1986, and Columbia in 2003.[93] While the 1986 loss was mitigated by building
the Space Shuttle Endeavour from replacement parts, NASA did not build another
orbiter to replace the second loss.[93] NASA's Space Shuttle program had 135
missions when the program ended with the successful landing of the Space Shuttle
Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011. The program spanned 30 years
with over 300 astronauts sent into space.[94]

International Space Station (1993–present)

Main article: International Space Station

The International Space Station as seen from Space Shuttle Endeavour during STS-
134.
The International Space Station (ISS) combines NASA's Space Station Freedom project
with the Soviet/Russian Mir-2 station, the European Columbus station, and the
Japanese Kibō laboratory module.[95] NASA originally planned in the 1980s to
develop Freedom alone, but US budget constraints led to the merger of these
projects into a single multi-national program in 1993, managed by NASA, the Russian
Federal Space Agency (RKA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the
European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).[96][97] The
station consists of pressurized modules, external trusses, solar arrays and other
components, which were manufactured in various factories around the world, and have
been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets, and the US Space Shuttles.[95]
The on-orbit assembly began in 1998, the completion of the US Orbital Segment
occurred in 2019 and the completion of the Russian Orbital Segment occurred in
2010, though there are some debates of whether new modules should be added in the
segment. The ownership and use of the space station is established in
intergovernmental treaties and agreements[98] which divide the station into two
areas and allow Russia to retain full ownership of the Russian Orbital Segment
(with the exception of Zarya),[99][100] with the US Orbital Segment allocated
between the other international partners.[98]

Long-duration missions to the ISS are referred to as ISS Expeditions. Expedition

crew members typically spend approximately six months on the ISS.[101] The initial
expedition crew size was three, temporarily decreased to two following the Columbia
disaster. Since May 2009, expedition crew size has been six crew members.[102] Crew
size is expected to be increased to seven, the number the ISS was designed for,
once the Commercial Crew Program becomes operational.[103] The ISS has been
continuously occupied for the past 21 years and 11 days, having exceeded the
previous record held by Mir; and has been visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from
15 different nations.[104][105]

The station can be seen from the Earth with the naked eye and, as of 2021, is the
largest artificial satellite in Earth orbit with a mass and volume greater than
that of any previous space station.[106] The Soyuz spacecraft delivers crew
members, stays docked for their half-year-long missions and then returns them home.
Several uncrewed cargo spacecraft provide service to the ISS; they are the Russian
Progress spacecraft which has done so since 2000, the European Automated Transfer
Vehicle (ATV) since 2008, the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) since 2009, the
SpaceX Dragon from 2012 until 2020, and the American Cygnus spacecraft since 2013.
The Space Shuttle, before its retirement, was also used for cargo transfer and
would often switch out expedition crew members, although it did not have the
capability to remain docked for the duration of their stay. Until another US crewed
spacecraft is ready, crew members will travel to and from the International Space
Station exclusively aboard the Soyuz.[107] The highest number of people occupying
the ISS has been thirteen; this occurred three times during the late Shuttle ISS
assembly missions.[108]

On March 29, 2019, the ISS was scheduled to have its first all-female spacewalk,
but it was delayed; Jessica Meir and Christina Koch performed the first all-female
spacewalk with on October 18, as part of a lengthy series of upgrades to the ISS'
power systems and physics observatories.[109][110][111] The ISS program is expected
to continue to 2030.[112]

Constellation program (2005–2010)

Main article: Constellation program

Artist's rendering of Altair lander landed on the Moon.

While the Space Shuttle program was still suspended after the loss of Columbia,
President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration including the
retirement of the Space Shuttle after completing the International Space Station.
The plan was enacted into law by the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 and directs
NASA to develop and launch the Crew Exploration Vehicle (later called Orion) by
2010, return Americans to the Moon by 2020, land on Mars as feasible, repair the
Hubble Space Telescope, and continue scientific investigation through robotic solar
system exploration, human presence on the ISS, Earth observation, and astrophysics
research. The crewed exploration goals prompted NASA's Constellation program.[113]

On December 4, 2006, NASA announced it was planning a permanent Moon base.[114] The
goal was to start building the Moon base by 2020, and by 2024, have a fully
functional base that would allow for crew rotations and in-situ resource
utilization. However, in 2009, the Augustine Committee found the program to be on
an "unsustainable trajectory."[115] In February 2010, President Barack Obama's
administration proposed eliminating public funds for it.[116]

Commercial Crew Program (2011–present)

This section is an excerpt from Commercial Crew Program.[edit]
NASA Commercial Crew Program logo (cropped).svg

The Crew Dragon (left) approaching the ISS. Starliner (right) being stacked for
testing.
The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) provides commercially-operated crew
transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under
contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between the expeditions of the
International Space Station program. American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX began
providing service in 2020, using the Crew Dragon spacecraft, and Boeing will also
join when its Boeing Starliner spacecraft becomes operational in 2023.

The spacecraft are owned and operated by the vendor, and crew transportation is
provided to NASA as a commercial service. Each mission sends up to four astronauts
to the ISS, with an option for a fifth passenger available. Operational flights
occur approximately once every six months for missions that last for approximately
six months. A spacecraft remains docked to the ISS during its mission, and missions
usually overlap by at least a few days. Between the retirement of the Space Shuttle
in 2011 and the first operational CCP mission in 2020, NASA relied on the Soyuz
program to transport its astronauts to the ISS.

A Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched to space atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 launch

vehicle and the capsule returns to Earth via splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. The
program's first operational mission, SpaceX Crew-1, launched on 16 November 2020.
Boeing Starliner spacecraft will participate after its final test flight, launched
atop an Atlas V N22 or Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle. Instead of a splashdown, a
Starliner capsule will return on land with airbags at one of four designated sites
in the western United States.

Development of the Commercial Crew Program began in 2011 as NASA shifted from
internal development of crewed vehicles to perform ISS crew rotation to commercial
industry development of transport to the ISS. A series of open competitions over
the following two years saw successful bids from Boeing, Blue Origin, Sierra
Nevada, and SpaceX to develop proposals for ISS crew transport vehicles. In 2014,
NASA awarded separate fixed-price contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to develop their
respective systems and to fly astronauts to the ISS. Each contract required four
successful demonstrations to achieve human rating for the system: pad abort,
uncrewed orbital test, launch abort, and crewed orbital test. Operational missions
were initially planned to begin in 2017, but delays required NASA to purchase
additional seats on Soyuz spacecraft up to Soyuz MS-17.
Journey to Mars (2010–2017)
President Obama's plan was to develop American private spaceflight capabilities to
get astronauts to the International Space Station, replace Russian Soyuz capsules,
and use Orion capsules for ISS emergency escape purposes. During a speech at the
Kennedy Space Center on April 15, 2010, Obama proposed a new heavy-lift vehicle
(HLV) to replace the formerly planned Ares V.[117] In his speech, Obama called for
a crewed mission to an asteroid as soon as 2025, and a crewed mission to Mars orbit
by the mid-2030s.[117] The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 was passed by Congress
and signed into law on October 11, 2010.[118] The act officially canceled the
Constellation program.[118]

The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 required a newly designed HLV be chosen within
90 days of its passing; the launch vehicle was given the name Space Launch System.
The new law also required the construction of a beyond low earth orbit spacecraft.
[119] The Orion spacecraft, which was being developed as part of the Constellation
program, was chosen to fulfill this role.[120] The Space Launch System is planned
to launch both Orion and other necessary hardware for missions beyond low Earth
orbit.[121] The SLS is to be upgraded over time with more powerful versions. The
initial capability of SLS is required to be able to lift 70 t (150,000 lb) (later
95 t or 209,000 lb) into LEO. It is then planned to be upgraded to 105 t (231,000
lb) and then eventually to 130 t (290,000 lb).[120][122] The Orion capsule first
flew on Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1), an uncrewed test flight that was
launched on December 5, 2014, atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket.[122]

NASA undertook a feasibility study in 2012 and developed the Asteroid Redirect
Mission as an uncrewed mission to move a boulder-sized near-Earth asteroid (or
boulder-sized chunk of a larger asteroid) into lunar orbit. The mission would
demonstrate ion thruster technology, and develop techniques that could be used for
planetary defense against an asteroid collision, as well as a cargo transport to
Mars in support of a future human mission. The Moon-orbiting boulder might then
later be visited by astronauts. The Asteroid Redirect Mission was cancelled in 2017
as part of the FY2018 NASA budget, the first one under President Donald Trump.[123]

The Orion spacecraft conducted an uncrewed test launch on a Delta IV Heavy rocket
in December 2014.[124]

Artemis program (2017–present)

Main article: Artemis program
An arrowhead combined with a depiction of a trans-lunar injection trajectory forms
an "A", with an "Artemis" wordmark printed underneath
Artemis program logo
Since 2017, NASA's crewed spaceflight program has been the Artemis program, which
involves the help of U.S. commercial spaceflight companies and international
partners such as ESA, JAXA, and CSA.[125] The goal of this program is to land "the
first woman and the next man" on the lunar south pole region by 2024. Artemis would
be the first step towards the long-term goal of establishing a sustainable presence
on the Moon, laying the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy,
and eventually sending humans to Mars.

The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle was held over from the canceled Constellation
program for Artemis. Artemis 1 is the uncrewed initial launch of Space Launch
System (SLS) that would also send an Orion spacecraft on a Distant Retrograde
Orbit, which, as of May 2020, is planned to launch no earlier than November 2021.
[126]

File:Mars Exploration Zones.webm

Concepts for how the first human landing site on Mars might evolve over the course
of multiple human expeditions
NASA's next major space initiative is to be the construction of the Lunar Gateway.
This initiative is to involve the construction of a new space station, which will
have many features in common with the current International Space Station, except
that it will be in orbit about the Moon, instead of the Earth.[127] This space
station will be designed primarily for non-continuous human habitation. The first
tentative steps of returning to crewed lunar missions will be Artemis 2, which is
to include the Orion crew module, propelled by the SLS, and is to launch in 2023.
[125] This mission is to be a 10-day mission planned to briefly place a crew of
four into a Lunar flyby.[122] The construction of the Gateway would begin with the
proposed Artemis 3, which is planned to deliver a crew of four to Lunar orbit along
with the first modules of the Gateway. This mission would last for up to 30 days.
NASA plans to build full scale deep space habitats such as the Lunar Gateway and
the Nautilus-X as part of its Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships
(NextSTEP) program.[128] In 2017, NASA was directed by the congressional NASA
Transition Authorization Act of 2017 to get humans to Mars-orbit (or to the Martian
surface) by the 2030s.[129][130]

In September 2020, as a part of the Artemis program, NASA outlined a plan to send
astronauts to the Moon by 2024. The astronauts are to travel in the Orion capsule,
launched on the SLS rocket.[131]

In February 2021, it was announced that "Blue Ghost Lander", a robotic device being
constructed in Cedar Park, Texas, will be sent to the moon's Mare Crisium in 2023
to help prepare for NASA's goal of returning to the Lunar surface.[132][133]

In November 2021, it was announced that the goal of landing sending astronauts to
the Moon by 2024 had slipped to No Earlier Than 2025 due to numerous factors.

Satellites, probes, rovers, launch vehicles

Main articles: List of NASA missions and List of uncrewed NASA missions
File:NASA 60th- What’s Out There.webm
Video of many of the uncrewed missions used to explore the outer reaches of space
NASA has conducted many uncrewed and robotic spaceflight programs throughout its
history. Uncrewed robotic programs launched the first American artificial
satellites into Earth orbit for scientific and communications purposes, and sent
scientific probes to explore the planets of the solar system, starting with Venus
and Mars, and including "grand tours" of the outer planets. More than 1,000
uncrewed missions have been designed to explore the Earth and the solar system.
[134]

Earth, Moon, and L2 point

Besides exploration, communication satellites have also been launched by NASA.[135]
The spacecraft have been launched directly from Earth or from orbiting space
shuttles, which could either deploy the satellite itself, or with a rocket stage to
take it farther.

The first US uncrewed satellite was Explorer 1, which started as an ABMA/JPL

project during the early part of the Space Race. It was launched in January 1958,
two months after Sputnik. At the creation of NASA, the Explorer project was
transferred to the agency and still continues to this day. Its missions have been
focusing on the Earth and the Sun, measuring magnetic fields and the solar wind,
among other aspects.[136] A more recent Earth satellite, not related to the
Explorer program, was the Hubble Space Telescope, which was brought into orbit in
1990.[137]

Cygnus and Cargo Dragon are used to resupply the International Space Station (ISS)
as part of NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program as of 2020. Cygnus is
manufactured by Northrop Grumman and launched on the Antares rocket. Cargo Dragon
is manufactured by SpaceX and launched on the Block 5 variant of Falcon 9. SpaceX
Dragon, also launched on Falcon 9, was used to resupply the ISS from 2010 to 2020.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is currently scheduled to launch in November
2021 on an Ariane 5 rocket.[138] It will be placed in a halo orbit circling the
Sun-Earth L2 point.[139]

Inner solar system (including Mars)

William H. Pickering, (center) JPL Director, President John F. Kennedy, (right).

NASA Administrator James E. Webb (background) discussing the Mariner program, with
a model presented.
The inner Solar System has been made the goal of at least four uncrewed programs.
The first was Mariner in the 1960s and 1970s, which made multiple visits to Venus
and Mars and one to Mercury. Probes launched under the Mariner program were also
the first to make a planetary flyby (Mariner 2), to take the first pictures from
another planet (Mariner 4), the first planetary orbiter (Mariner 9), and the first
to make a gravity assist maneuver (Mariner 10). This is a technique where the
satellite takes advantage of the gravity and velocity of planets to reach its
destination.[140]

The first successful landing on Mars was made by Viking 1 in 1976. Twenty years
later a rover was landed on Mars by Mars Pathfinder.[141] On November 26, 2011,
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission was successfully launched for Mars.
Curiosity successfully landed on Mars on August 6, 2012, and subsequently began its
search for evidence of past or present life on Mars.[142][143][144] On the horizon
of NASA's plans is the MAVEN spacecraft as part of the Mars Scout Program to study
the atmosphere of Mars.[145]

NASA's ongoing investigations include in-depth surveys of Mars (Perseverance and

InSight).

Outer solar system

Outside Mars, Jupiter was first visited by Pioneer 10 in 1973. More than 20 years
later Galileo sent a probe into the planet's atmosphere, and became the first
spacecraft to orbit the planet.[146] Pioneer 11 became the first spacecraft to
visit Saturn in 1979, with Voyager 2 making the first (and so far only) visits to
Uranus and Neptune in 1986 and 1989, respectively. The first spacecraft to leave
the solar system was Pioneer 10 in 1983. For a time it was the most distant
spacecraft, but it has since been surpassed by both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.[147]

Pioneers 10 and 11 and both Voyager probes carry messages from the Earth to
extraterrestrial life.[148][149] Communication can be difficult with deep space
travel. For instance, it took about three hours for a radio signal to reach the New
Horizons spacecraft when it was more than halfway to Pluto.[150] Contact with
Pioneer 10 was lost in 2003. Both Voyager probes continue to operate as they
explore the outer boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space.[151]

The New Horizons mission to Pluto was launched in 2006 and successfully performed a
flyby of Pluto on July 14, 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 flyby. Other active spacecraft are Juno for Jupiter and Dawn
for the asteroid belt. NASA continued to support in situ exploration beyond the
asteroid belt, including Pioneer and Voyager traverses into the unexplored trans-
Pluto region, and gas giant orbiters Galileo (1989–2003), Cassini (1997–2017), and
Juno (2011–present).

Near-Earth object detection

Further information: Near-Earth object
In 1994, there was a Congressional directive to find near-Earth objects (NEOs)
larger than 1 kilometer, and 90% of 1 kilometer sized asteroids are estimated to
have been found by 2010.[152]

In 1999, NASA visited 433 Eros with the NEAR spacecraft which entered its orbit in
2000, closely imaging the asteroid with various instruments at that time.[153] From
the 1990s NASA has run many NEO detection programs from Earth bases observatories,
greatly increasing the number of objects that have been detected. However, many
asteroids are very dark and the ones that are near the Sun are much harder to
detect from Earth-based telescopes which observe at night, and thus face away from
the Sun. NEOs inside Earth orbit only reflect a part of light also rather than
potentially a "full Moon" when they are behind the Earth and fully lit by the Sun.

In 2005, the US Congress mandated NASA to achieve by the year 2020 specific levels
of search completeness for discovering, cataloging, and characterizing dangerous
asteroids larger than 140 meters (460 ft) (Act of 2005, H.R. 1022; 109th),[154] but
no new funds were appropriated for this effort.[155] As of January 2019, it is
estimated about 40% of the NEOs of this size have been found, although since by its
nature the exact amount of NEOs are unknown the calculations are based on
predictions of how many there could be.[156]

One issue with NEO prediction is trying to estimate how many more are likely to be
found. In 2000, NASA reduced its estimate of the number of existing near-Earth
asteroids over one kilometer in diameter from 1,000–2,000 to 500–1,000.[157][158]
Shortly thereafter, the LINEAR survey provided an alternative estimate of 1,227+170
−90.[159] In 2011, on the basis of NEOWISE observations, the estimated number of
one-kilometer NEAs was narrowed to 981±19 (of which 93% had been discovered at the
time), while the number of NEAs larger than 140 meters across was estimated at
13,200±1,900.[160][161] The NEOWISE estimate differed from other estimates in
assuming a slightly lower average asteroid albedo, which produces larger estimated
diameters for the same asteroid brightness. This resulted in 911 then known
asteroids at least 1 km across, as opposed to the 830 then listed by CNEOS.[162] In
2017, using an improved statistical method, two studies reduced the estimated
number of NEAs brighter than absolute magnitude 17.75 (approximately over one
kilometer in diameter) to 921±20.[163][164] The estimated number of asteroids
brighter than absolute magnitude of 22.0 (approximately over 140 m across) rose to
27,100±2,200, double the WISE estimate,[164] of which about a third are known as of
2018. A problem with estimating the number of NEOs is that detections are
influenced by a number of factors.[165]

NASA turned the infrared space survey telescope WISE back on in 2013 to look for
NEOs, and it found some during the course of its operation. NEOcam competed in the
highly competitive Discovery program, which became more so due to a low mission
rate in the 2010s.

Due to the opposition effect over half (53%) of the discoveries of Near Earth
objects were made in 3.8% of the sky, in a 22.5° cone facing directly away from the
Sun, and the vast majority (87%) were made in 15% of the sky, in a 45° cone facing
away from the Sun.[166]
Research
Main article: NASA research
For technologies funded or otherwise supported by NASA, see NASA spinoff
technologies.
NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate conducts aeronautics research.

NASA has made use of technologies such as the multi-mission radioisotope

thermoelectric generator (MMRTG), which is a type of radioisotope thermoelectric
generator used to power spacecraft.[167] Shortages of the required plutonium-238
have curtailed deep space missions since the turn of the millennium.[168] An
example of a spacecraft that was not developed because of a shortage of this
material was New Horizons 2.[168]

The Earth science research program was created and first funded in the 1980s under
the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.[169][170]

NASA started an annual competition in 2014 named Cubes in Space.[171] It is jointly

organized by NASA and the global education company I Doodle Learning, with the
objective of teaching school students aged 11–18 to design and build scientific
experiments to be launched into space on a NASA rocket or balloon. On June 21, 2017
the world's smallest satellite, KalamSAT, was launched.[172]

NASA also researches and publishes on climate change.[173] Its statements concur
with the global scientific consensus that the global climate is warming.[174] Bob
Walker, who has advised US President Donald Trump on space issues, has advocated
that NASA should focus on space exploration and that its climate study operations
should be transferred to other agencies such as NOAA. Former NASA atmospheric
scientist J. Marshall Shepherd countered that Earth science study was built into
NASA's mission at its creation in the 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act.[175]
NASA won the 2020 Webby People's Voice Award for Green in the category Web.[176]

NASA contracted a third party to study the probability of using Free Space Optics
(FSO) to communicate with Optical (laser) Stations on the Ground (OGS) called
laser-com RF networks for satellite communications.[177]

On July 29, 2020, NASA requested American universities to propose new technologies
for extracting water from the lunar soil and developing power systems. The idea
will help the space agency conduct sustainable exploration of the Moon.[178]

Environmental impact
The exhaust gases produced by rocket propulsion systems, both in Earth's atmosphere
and in space, can adversely effect the Earth's environment. Some hypergolic rocket
propellants, such as hydrazine, are highly toxic prior to combustion, but decompose
into less toxic compounds after burning. Rockets using hydrocarbon fuels, such as
kerosene, release carbon dioxide and soot in their exhaust.[179] However, carbon
dioxide emissions are insignificant compared to those from other sources; on
average, the United States consumed 802,620,000 US gallons (3.0382×109 L) of liquid
fuels per day in 2014, while a single Falcon 9 rocket first stage burns around
25,000 US gallons (95,000 L) of kerosene fuel per launch.[180][181] Even if a
Falcon 9 were launched every single day, it would only represent 0.006% of liquid
fuel consumption (and carbon dioxide emissions) for that day. Additionally, the
exhaust from LOx- and LH2- fueled engines, like the SSME, is almost entirely water
vapor.[182] NASA addressed environmental concerns with its canceled Constellation
program in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act in 2011.[183] In
contrast, ion engines use harmless noble gases like xenon for propulsion.[184][185]

An example of NASA's environmental efforts is the NASA Sustainability Base.

Additionally, the Exploration Sciences Building was awarded the LEED Gold rating in
2010.[186] On May 8, 2003, the 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.[187]

In 2018, NASA along with other companies including Sensor Coating Systems, Pratt &
Whitney, Monitor Coating and UTRC launched the project CAUTION (CoAtings for Ultra
High Temperature detectION). This project aims to enhance the temperature range of
the Thermal History Coating up to 1,500 °C (2,730 °F) and beyond. The final goal of
this project is improving the safety of jet engines as well as increasing
efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions.[188]

Goals and directives

Further information: Space policy of the United States
Some of NASA's main directives have been the landing of a crewed spacecraft on the
Moon, the designing and construction of the Space Shuttle, and efforts to construct
a large, crewed space station. Typically, the major directives originated from the
intersection of scientific interest and advice, political interests, federal
funding concerns, and the public interest, which all together brought varying waves
of effort, often heavily swayed by technical developments, funding changes, and
world events. For example, in the 1980s, the Reagan administration announced a
directive with a major push to build a crewed space station, given the name Space
Station Freedom.[189] But, when the Cold War ended, Russia, the United States, and
other international partners came together to design and build the International
Space Station.
In the 2010s, major shifts in directives include the retirement of the Space
Shuttle, and the later development of a new crewed heavy-lift rocket, the Space
Launch System. Missions for the new Space Launch System have varied, but overall,
NASA's directives are similar to the Space Shuttle program as the primary goal and
desire is human spaceflight. Additionally, NASA's Space Exploration Initiative of
the 1980s opened new avenues of exploration focused on other galaxies.

For the coming decades, NASA's focus has gradually shifting towards eventual
exploration of Mars.[190] One of the technological options focused on was the
Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM).[190] ARM had largely been defunded in 2017, but
the key technologies developed for ARM would be utilized for future exploration,
notably on a solar electric propulsion system.[123][190]

Longer project execution timelines leave future executive administration officials

to execute on a directive, which can lead to directional mismanagement.[vague]

Previously, in the early 2000s, NASA worked towards a strategic plan called the
Constellation Program, but the program was defunded in the early 2010s.[191][192]
[193][194] In the 1990s, NASA's administration adopted an approach to planning
coined "Faster, Better, Cheaper".[195]

NASA Authorization Act of 2017

The NASA Authorization Act of 2017, which included $19.5 billion in funding for
that fiscal year, directed NASA to get humans near or on the surface of Mars by the
early 2030s.[196]

Though the agency is independent, the survival or discontinuation of projects can

depend directly on the will of the President.[197]

Space Policy Directive 1

In December 2017, on the 45th anniversary of the last crewed mission to the Moon's
surface, President Donald Trump approved a directive that includes a lunar mission
on the pathway to Mars and beyond.[190]

The directive I'm signing today will refocus America's space program on human
exploration and discovery. It marks an important step in returning American
astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972 for long-term exploration and
use. This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will
establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars. And perhaps, someday, to
many worlds beyond.

— President Donald Trump, 2017[198]

New NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine addressed this directive in an August 2018
speech where he focused on the sustainability aspects—going to the Moon to stay—
that are explicit in the directive, including taking advantage of US commercial
space capability that did not exist even five years ago, which have driven down
costs and increased access to space.[199]

Goals
Since 2011, NASA's strategic goals have been[200]

Extend and sustain human activities across the Solar System

Expand scientific understanding of the Earth and the universe
Create innovative new space technologies
Advance aeronautics research
Enable program and institutional capabilities to conduct NASA's aeronautics and
space activities
Share NASA with the public, educators, and students to provide opportunities to
participate
Budget
Main article: Budget of NASA

NASA's budget from 1958 to 2012 as a percentage of federal budget

An artist's conception, from NASA, of an astronaut planting a US flag on Mars. A

human mission to Mars has been discussed as a possible NASA mission since the
1960s.
NASA's share of the total federal budget peaked at approximately 4.41% in 1966
during the Apollo program, then rapidly declined to approximately 1% in 1975, and
stayed around that level through 1998.[197][201] The percentage then gradually
dropped, until leveling off again at around half a percent in 2006 (estimated in
2012 at 0.48% of the federal budget).[202] In a March 2012 hearing of the United
States Senate Science Committee, science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson testified
that "Right now, NASA's annual budget is half a penny on your tax dollar. For twice
that—a penny on a dollar—we can transform the country from a sullen, dispirited
nation, weary of economic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed its 20th century
birthright to dream of tomorrow."[203][204]

Despite this, public perception of NASA's budget differs significantly: a 1997 poll
indicated that most Americans believed that 20% of the federal budget went to NASA.
[205]

For Fiscal Year 2015, NASA received an appropriation of US$18.01 billion from
Congress—$549 million more than requested and approximately $350 million more than
the 2014 NASA budget passed by Congress.[206]

In Fiscal Year 2016, NASA received $19.3 billion.[207]

President Donald Trump signed the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017 in
March, which set the 2017 budget at around $19.5 billion.[207] The budget is also
reported as $19.3 billion for 2017, with $20.7 billion proposed for FY2018.[208]
[209]

Examples of some proposed FY2018 budgets:[209]

Exploration: $4.79 billion

Planetary science: $2.23 billion
Earth science: $1.92 billion
Aeronautics: $0.685 billion
Media
NASAcast
NASAcast is the official audio and video podcast of the NASA website. Created in
late 2005, the podcast service contains the latest audio and video features from
the NASA web site, including NASA TV's This Week at NASA and educational materials
produced by NASA. Additional NASA podcasts, such as Science@NASA, are also featured
and give subscribers an in-depth look at content by subject matter.[210]

NASA EDGE
NASA EDGE is a video podcast which explores different missions, technologies and
projects developed by NASA. The program was released by NASA on March 18, 2007,
and, as of August 2020, there have been 200 vodcasts produced. It is a public
outreach vodcast sponsored by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and
based out of the Exploration and Space Operations Directorate at Langley Research
Center in Hampton, Virginia. NASA EDGE takes an insiders look at current projects
and technologies from NASA facilities around the United States, and it is depicted
through personal interviews, on-scene broadcasts, computer animations, and personal
interviews with top scientists and engineers at NASA. The show explores the
contributions NASA has made to society as well as the progress of current projects
in materials and space exploration. NASA EDGE vodcasts can be downloaded from the
NASA website and from iTunes.

Cast and crew

Chris Giersch - host
Blair Allen - co-host and senior producer[211]
Franklin Fitzgerald - news anchor and "everyman"
Jaqueline Mirielle Cortez - special co-host
Ron Beard - director and "set therapist"
Don Morrison - audio/video engineer
Ryan Darden - Editor[212]
Reception
In its first year of production, the show was downloaded over 450,000 times. As of
February 2010, the average download rate is more than 420,000 per month, with over
one million downloads in December 2009 and January 2010.[213]

Interactive projects

NASA EDGE broadcasting live from White Sands Missile Range in 2010
NASA and the NASA EDGE have developed interactive programs designed to complement
the vodcast. The Lunar Electric Rover App allows users to drive a simulated Lunar
Electric Rover between objectives, and it provides information about and images of
the vehicle.[214] The NASA EDGE Widget provides a graphical user interface for
accessing NASA EDGE vodcasts, image galleries, and the program's Twitter feed, as
well as a live NASA news feed.[215]

Miscellaneous
NASA Advisory Council
In response to the Apollo 1 accident, which killed three astronauts 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 the aftermath of the Shuttle Columbia disaster, Congress required that the ASAP
submit an annual report to the NASA Administrator and to Congress.[216] By 1971,
NASA had also established the Space Program Advisory Council and the Research and
Technology Advisory Council to provide the administrator with advisory committee
support. In 1977, the latter two were combined to form the NASA Advisory Council
(NAC).[217] The NASA Authorization Act of 2014 reaffirmed the importance of ASAP.

Use of the metric system

US law requires the International System of Units to be used in all U.S. Government
programs, "except where impractical".[218]

In 1969, the Apollo 11 landed on the Moon using a mix of United States customary
units and metric units. In the 1980s, NASA started the transition towards the
metric system, but was still using both systems in the 1990s.[219][220] On
September 23, 1999, a unit mixup between US and SI units resulted in the loss of
the Mars Climate Orbiter.[221]

In August 2007, NASA stated that all future missions and explorations of the Moon
would be done entirely using the SI system. This was done to improve cooperation
with space agencies of other countries that already use the metric system.[222]

As of 2007, NASA is predominantly working with SI units, but some projects still
use English units, and some, including the International Space Station, use a mix
of both.[223]

Partnership with the United States Space Force

Main article: United States Space Force
Space Force Delta
The United States Space Force (USSF) is the space service branch of the United
States Armed Forces, while the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for civil
spaceflight. NASA and the Space Force's predecessors in the Air Force have a long-
standing cooperative relationship, with the Space Force supporting NASA launches
out of Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and Vandenberg
Space Force Base, to include range support and rescue operations from Task Force
45.[224] NASA and the Space Force also partner on matters such as defending Earth
from asteroids.[225] Space Force members can be NASA astronauts, with Colonel
Michael S. Hopkins, the commander of SpaceX Crew-1, commissioned into the Space
Force from the International Space Station on 18 December 2020.[226][227][228] In
September 2020, the Space Force and NASA signed a memorandum of understanding
formally acknowledging the joint role of both agencies. This new memorandum
replaced a similar document signed in 2006 between NASA and Air Force Space
Command.[229][230]

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

This section is an excerpt from Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on science and
technology § NASA.[edit]
NASA announced the temporary closure of all visitor complexes at its field centers
until further notice and asked all non-critical personnel to work from home if
possible. Production and manufacturing of the Space Launch System at the Michoud
Assembly Facility has been halted,[231][232] and further delays are expected for
the James Webb Space Telescope,[233] although work resumed on June 3, 2020.[234]

The majority of Johnson Space Center personnel have transitioned to

telecommunicating, and mission-critical personnel on the International Space
Station have been ordered to reside in the mission control room until further
notice. Station operations are relatively unaffected, but astronauts on new
expeditions are subject to longer more stringent pre-flight quarantine.[235]
Gallery
Observations

Various nebulae observed from a NASA space telescope

1 Ceres

Pluto

Past and current spacecraft

Hardware comparison of Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury[note 3]

Hubble Space Telescope, astronomy observatory in Earth orbit since 1990. Also
visited by the Space Shuttle

Curiosity rover, roving Mars since 2012

Perseverance rover

Planned spacecraft

Orion spacecraft

Space Launch System rocket

James Webb Space Telescope

Lunar Gateway space station

Concepts
NASA has developed oftentimes elaborate plans and technology concepts, some of
which become worked into real plans.

Concept of cargo transport from Space Shuttle to Nuclear Shuttle, 1960s

Space Tug concept, 1970s

Vision mission for an interstellar precursor spacecraft by NASA, 2000s

Langley's Mars Ice Dome design for a Mars habitat, 2010s

See also
flag United States portal
icon Politics portal
Spaceflight portal
List of crewed spacecraft – Wikipedia list article
List of United States rockets
Articles about NASA
Astronomy Picture of the Day – website
List of NASA aircraft – Wikipedia list article
NASA Advanced Space Transportation Program
NASA Art Program
NASA Research Park – research park near San Jose, California
NASA TV – Television channels of NASA
NASAcast
TechPort (NASA) – Technology Portfolio System
Related agencies
Department of Defense Manned Space Flight Support Office
European Space Agency – European organisation dedicated to the exploration of space
Indian Space Research Organisation – India's national space agency
Roscosmos – Space agency of Russia
United States Space Force – Space service branch of the United States Armed Forces
Explanatory notes
NASA is an independent agency that is not a part of any executive department, but
reports directly to the President.[5][6]
The descent stage of the LM stayed on the Moon after landing, while the ascent
stage brought the two astronauts back to the CSM and then fell back to the Moon.
From left to right: Launch vehicle of Apollo (Saturn 5), Gemini (Titan 2) and
Mercury (Atlas). Left, top-down: Spacecraft of Apollo, Gemini and Mercury. The
Saturn IB and Mercury-Redstone launch vehicles are left out.
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Library resources about
NASA
Resources in your library
Resources in other libraries
Alexander, Joseph K. Science Advice to NASA: Conflict, Consensus, Partnership,
Leadership (2019) excerpt
Bizony, Piers et al. The NASA Archives. 60 Years in Space (2019)
Brady, Kevin M. "NASA Launches Houston into Orbit How America's Space Program
Contributed to Southeast Texas's Economic Growth, Scientific Development, and
Modernization during the Late Twentieth Century." Journal of the West (2018) 57#4
pp 13–54.
Bromberg, Joan Lisa. NASA and the Space Industry (Johns Hopkins UP, 1999).
Clemons, Jack. Safely to Earth: The Men and Women Who Brought the Astronauts Home
(2018) excerpt
Dick, Steven J., and Roger D. Launius, eds. Critical Issues in the History of
Spaceflight (NASA, 2006)
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Quarterly of the National Archives 28.2 (1996): 127-143.
Pyle, Rod. Space 2.0: How Private Spaceflight, a Resurgent NASA, and International
Partners are Creating a New Space Age (2019), overview of space exploration excerpt
Spencer, Brett. "The Book and the Rocket: The Symbiotic Relationship between
American Public Libraries and the Space Program, 1950–2015," Information & Culture
51, no. 4 (2016): 550–82.
Weinzierl, Matthew. "Space, the final economic frontier." Journal of Economic
Perspectives 32.2 (2018): 173-92. online, review of economics literature
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