The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established 50 years ago today by the aptly named National Aeronautics and Space Act.Posted on 07/29/2008 2:15:25 PM PDT by Just another Joe
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established 50 years ago today by the aptly named National Aeronautics and Space Act.
NASA began operations on October 1, 1958, with a staff of 80 spread among four laboratories. The agency now consists of 15 facilities that employed more than 17,000 people in 2006, according to Best Places to Work.
The agency's mission statement since 2006 has been "to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research."
After the early tragedy of Apollo 1, in which three astronauts died in a fire on the launch pad when the hatch door wouldn't open, the Apollo program made six successful moon landings in 1969 and the 1970s.
NASA's recent history has been marred, however, by the losses of two Shuttles—Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003—and their 14 astronauts.
Faced with shrinking budgets during the 1990s, the agency under administrator Dan Golden adopted the mantra of "faster, better, cheaper," focusing on smaller robotic missions to Mars.
Coincidentally or not, NASA lost two craft in 1999: Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander. It followed up in 2003, however, with the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which are still active, their missions having been extended multiple times.
Riding on the Spirit rover's successful landing, President Bush announced in January 2004 that NASA's new goal would be returning astronauts to the moon by 2020 to establish a waystation for a manned mission to Mars.
To meet that goal, the agency plans to retire the aging space shuttle fleet in 2010 and replace it with the more Apollo-like Orion craft, part of the Constellation Program, by 2015.
Uncertain budgets continue to plague the agency. Alan Stern, NASA's Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate resigned in March after less than a year on the job following attempts to bring the Mars program budget under control by cutting funding for the rovers and the Mars Odyssey orbiter.
A recently leaked internal NASA report showed that at current funding levels the agency would be unable to meet its internal goal of launching Orion early, in the summer of 2013.
One way NASA has attempted to cut cost is by establishing a series of prizes for private groups to develop the technology the agency needs, such as a lunar lander vehicle and better spacesuit gloves.
Private groups have also begun working on spaceflight independently of NASA. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and aerospace engineer Burt Rutan's company Scaled Composites won the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE in 2004 for reaching an altitude of 100 kilometers twice in two weeks with its spaceplane SpaceShipOne.
Rutan and Sir Richard Branson are currently working on a space tourist craft, SpaceShipTwo. (Its mothership, the White Knight Two was unveiled yesterday in the Mojave Desert.)
NASA has drawn fire for focusing on space exploration at the expense of ignoring threats to the home planet such as climate change and asteroid strikes.
In 2006 the phrase "to understand and protect our home planet" was quietly struck from the agency's mission statement after four years. NASA said the deletion was in accordance with the President's vision of going back to the moon
Congratulations to NASA!
I wonder if anyone got it something silver? ;^)
Space Ping
I know there are a lot of NASA fans here, but this is just disgusting. NASA is nothing more than another government agency absolutely out of control.
ML/NJ
NASA turns 50 this week. The FBI turns 100. The Rush Limbaugh Show turns 20. It is a big week in American history.
H
ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. I mean, it was necessary during the cold war, but now we should completely allow corporations and businesses to make an enterprise in space. Not using taxpayer money to show the world “hey, look we beat the russians to mars everybody”!
If the government would loosen the reins a little NASA could once again be worth the money it would receive.
This is accomplished by denying development of outer space to private industry with the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty.
How many corporations would spend the capital necessary? Do you know a bunch of companies willing to spend $100 billion without any clear opportunity to make money?
The space program has more than paid for itself.
Why is our country spending tens of billions of dollars a year to fund a bureaucracy that costs hundreds of millions of dollars to send a small satellite up to space when a private aerospace company could do it for 15 million dollars. (sorry, that was a run on sentence wasn’t it).
NASA’s beginning was not noticed by many at the time. After JFK's challenge to land on the moon and return, NASA really got down to business. I do remember SPUTNIK being a great “wake up” and, of course, Yuri Gagarin's orbiting Earth before we even had a suborbital flight was embarrassment enough to get off our duffs.
We wouldn’t have satellites without NASA. Is there more to space than satellites? How would you do any research for pushing the envelope? Who would take pictures of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn?
yea, pictures of mars really helps me drive to work.
spending=costs Or, that “hundreds of millions” cost is part of “spending tens of billions”. Consider that some of this spending has benefits to our standard of life and for military applications as well. There is good spending (investment) and bad spending (waste). I think that NASA, for the most part, is good spending. Compare this to WELFARE, and what do you see?
Thats the answer I was expecting. So you think we should go back the dark ages and forget the solar system around us. Never mind all of the benefits of the knowledge and technologies developed. Never mind the stimulus to the nation; the pride.
The government is “we the people”. No company is going to spend the money to develop the technologies needed. These technologies touch every aspect of your life.
‘I think that NASA, for the most part, is good spending. Compare this to WELFARE, and what do you see?”
How much do we spend on welfare? Imagine how many jobs we’d have and the cool technologies if that was spent on something like NASA?
What is nasa currently doing for us taxpayers now? Besides stealing our money and giving it to union workers?
Happy Birthdy, NASA.
“What is nasa currently doing for us taxpayers now? Besides stealing our money and giving it to union workers?”
lol yeah teflon is already done so lets just shut the doors. I’m amazed that people complain about NASA but let Welfare, HHS, Dept of Education and so forth slide.
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