NASA has a rich history with many accomplishments. But how long has he been exploring the universe? Here’s what you need to know!
Nasa is well known today as one of the biggest names in space exploration, but when was NASA created and how long has the organization been around? It’s been pretty exciting for NASA lately. Just look at what it accomplished in 2021. NASA landed the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, used a solar probe to “touch” the Sun, and finally successfully launched the James Space Telescope Webb. And the next few years look even more promising! NASA’s Artemis program aims to put humans back on the Moon by 2025. NASA also hopes to land the first humans on Mars sometime in the 2030s.
While NASA’s recent and future missions are the most fun to tackle, it’s important to remember that NASA has been at the forefront of space exploration for decades. With its Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, NASA landed the first humans on the Moon. It also sent the first American into space as early as May 1961. NASA also helped create the Hubble Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Curiosity Mars rover, and countless other projects that were instrumental in understanding the universe.
It’s no secret that NASA is an ancient organization, but exactly how long has it been around? NASA was created all the way back on July 29, 1958. It was the day former President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (better known as from NASA). NASA’s first Administrator, T. Keith Glennan, was appointed soon after, on August 19, 1958. NASA went through many changes and administrators in the years that followed, but its primary mission to better understand the outer space has never changed.
How NASA Was Created
It’s easy enough to tell when NASA was created, but understanding everything that led up to this point is even more fascinating. The main catalyst for the creation of NASA was the Soviet Union’s launch of the Sputnik satellite on October 4, 1957. The Cold War was raging, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union were already high, and Sputnik n only made matters worse. If the Soviets had already figured out how to send a satellite into space, the United States could not sit idly by without reacting.
After much debate and discussion, February 6, 1958 saw the creation of the Special Senate Committee on Space and Aeronautics. The objective of the committee? Establish a new space agency within the United States government. The next big step happened on April 2 when President Eisenhower sent his NASA bill to Congress. Congress passed the legislation, and just under four months later, NASA was born on July 29. While the United States is no longer in a space race with the Soviet Union, Nasa remains an essential agency for learning about the universe. It’s been doing this for a few decades now and will (hopefully) continue to do so for many more to come.
Source: Nasa
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