The National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA ) is an independent agency of the United
States Federal Government responsible for
the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics
and aerospace research.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. 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 Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the
Space Launch System and Commercial Crew vehicles.
The agency is also responsible for the Launch
Services Program which provides oversight
of launch operations and countdown management
for unmanned NASA launches.
NASA science is focused on better understanding
Earth through the Earth Observing System;
advancing heliophysics through the efforts
of the Science Mission Directorate's Heliophysics
Research Program; exploring bodies throughout
the Solar System with advanced robotic spacecraft
missions such as New Horizons; and researching
astrophysics topics, such as the Big Bang,
through the Great Observatories and associated
programs.
== Creation ==
From 1946, the National Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics (NACA) had been experimenting
with rocket planes such as the supersonic
Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge
to launch an artificial satellite for the
International Geophysical Year (1957–58).
An effort for this was the American Project
Vanguard. After the Soviet 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 US 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 and his advisers counseled
more deliberate measures. On January 12, 1958,
NACA organized a "Special Committee on Space
Technology", headed by Guyford Stever. On
January 14, 1958, NACA Director Hugh Dryden
published "A National Research Program for
Space Technology" stating:
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.
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.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. A NASA seal
was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959.
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.
Earlier research efforts within the US Air
Force and many of ARPA's early space programs
were also transferred to NASA. In December
1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a contractor facility operated
by the California Institute of Technology.
== Staff and leadership ==
The agency's leader, NASA's administrator,
is nominated by the President of the United
States subject to approval of the US Senate,
and reports to him or her and serves as 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.
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. Though the agency
is independent, the survival or discontinuation
of projects can depend directly on the will
of the President.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.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, and Republican President Richard M.
Nixon replaced Webb with Republican Thomas
O. Paine.
James Fletcher was responsible for early planning
of the Space Shuttle program during his first
term as administrator under President Nixon.
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.
Former astronaut Charles Bolden served as
NASA's twelfth administrator from July 2009
to January 20, 2017. 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. Except under
exceptional circumstances, NASA civil service
employees are required to be citizens of the
United States.
== Space flight programs ==
NASA has conducted many manned and unmanned
spaceflight programs throughout its history.
Unmanned 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. Manned programs sent the first Americans
into low Earth orbit (LEO), won the Space
Race with the Soviet Union by landing twelve
men on the Moon from 1969 to 1972 in the Apollo
program, developed a semi-reusable LEO Space
Shuttle, and developed LEO space station capability
by itself and with the cooperation of several
other nations including post-Soviet Russia.
Some missions include both manned and unmanned
aspects, such as the Galileo probe, which
was deployed by astronauts in Earth orbit
before being sent unmanned to Jupiter.
=== Manned programs ===
The experimental rocket-powered aircraft programs
started by NACA were extended by NASA as support
for manned spaceflight. This was followed
by a one-man space capsule program, and in
turn by a two-man capsule program. Reacting
to loss of national prestige and security
fears caused by early leads in space exploration
by the Soviet Union, in 1961 President John
F. Kennedy proposed the ambitious goal "of
landing a man on the Moon by the end of [the
1960s], and returning him safely to the Earth."
This goal was met in 1969 by the Apollo program,
and NASA planned even more ambitious activities
leading to a manned mission to Mars. However,
reduction of the perceived threat and changing
political priorities almost immediately caused
the termination of most of these plans. NASA
turned its attention to an Apollo-derived
temporary space laboratory, and a semi-reusable
Earth orbital shuttle. In the 1990s, funding
was approved for NASA to develop a permanent
Earth orbital space station in cooperation
with the international community, which now
included the former rival, post-Soviet Russia.
To date, NASA has launched a total of 166
manned space missions on rockets, and thirteen
X-15 rocket flights above the USAF definition
of spaceflight altitude, 260,000 feet (80
km).
==== X-15 rocket plane (1959–1968) ====
The X-15 was an NACA experimental rocket-powered
hypersonic research aircraft, developed in
conjunction with the US Air Force and Navy.
The design featured a slender fuselage with
fairings along the side containing fuel and
early computerized control systems. Requests
for proposal were issued on December 30, 1954,
for the airframe, and February 4, 1955, for
the rocket engine. The airframe contract was
awarded to North American Aviation in November
1955, and the XLR30 engine contract was awarded
to Reaction Motors in 1956, and three planes
were built. 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).
Twelve pilots were selected for the program
from the Air Force, Navy, and NACA (later
NASA). A total of 199 flights were made between
1959 and 1968, resulting in the official world
record for the highest speed ever reached
by a manned powered aircraft (current as of
2014), and a maximum speed of Mach 6.72, 4,519
miles per hour (7,273 km/h). The altitude
record for X-15 was 354,200 feet (107.96 km).
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 manned spaceflight programs, including
reaction control system jets for controlling
the orientation of a spacecraft, space suits,
and horizon definition for navigation. The
reentry and landing data collected were valuable
to NASA for designing the Space Shuttle.
==== Project Mercury (1958–1963) ====
Shortly after the Space Race began, an early
objective was to get a person into Earth orbit
as soon as possible, therefore the simplest
spacecraft that could be launched by existing
rockets was favored. The US Air Force's Man
in Space Soonest program considered many manned
spacecraft designs, ranging from rocket planes
like the X-15, to small ballistic space capsules.
By 1958, the space plane concepts were eliminated
in favor of the ballistic capsule.When NASA
was created that same year, the Air Force
program was transferred to it and renamed
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 Freedom
7, launched by a Redstone booster on a 15-minute
ballistic (suborbital) flight. John Glenn
became the first American to be launched into
orbit, by an Atlas launch vehicle on February
20, 1962, aboard Friendship 7. 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.The Soviet Union (USSR) competed with
its own single-pilot spacecraft, Vostok. They
sent the first man in space, by launching
cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into a single Earth
orbit aboard Vostok 1 in April 1961, one month
before Shepard's flight. 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) ====
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 1962 to overcome the
Soviets' lead and to support the Apollo manned
lunar landing program, adding extravehicular
activity (EVA) and rendezvous and docking
to its objectives. The first manned Gemini
flight, Gemini 3, was flown by Gus Grissom
and John Young on March 23, 1965. 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.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 manned flights before Gemini's
first flight, achieving a three-cosmonaut
flight in 1963 and the first EVA in 1964.
After this, the program was canceled, and
Gemini caught up while spacecraft designer
Sergei Korolev developed the Soyuz spacecraft,
their answer to Apollo.
==== Apollo program (1961–1972) ====
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 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.Apollo was one of the most expensive
American scientific programs ever. It cost
more than $20 billion in 1960s dollars or
an estimated $213 billion in present-day US
dollars. (In comparison, the Manhattan Project
cost roughly $27.2 billion, accounting for
inflation.) It used the Saturn rockets as
launch vehicles, which were far bigger than
the rockets built for previous projects. The
spacecraft was also bigger; it had two main
parts, the combined command and service module
(CSM) and the lunar landing module (LM). The
LM was to be left on the Moon and only the
command module (CM) containing the three astronauts
would eventually return to Earth.The second
manned mission, Apollo 8, brought astronauts
for the first time in a flight around the
Moon in December 1968. Shortly before, the
Soviets had sent an unmanned spacecraft around
the Moon. On the next two missions docking
maneuvers that were needed for the Moon landing
were practiced and then finally the Moon landing
was made on the Apollo 11 mission in July
1969.
The first person to stand on the Moon was
Neil Armstrong, who was followed 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. The Moon
landing marked the end of the space race;
and as a gesture, Armstrong mentioned mankind
when he stepped down on the Moon.Apollo set
major milestones in human spaceflight. It
stands alone in sending manned missions beyond
low Earth orbit, and landing humans on another
celestial body. Apollo 8 was the first manned
spacecraft to orbit another celestial body,
while Apollo 17 marked the last moonwalk and
the last manned mission beyond low Earth orbit
to date. The program spurred advances in many
areas of technology peripheral to rocketry
and manned 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) ====
Skylab was the United States' first and only
independently built space station. 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. It
included a laboratory for studying the effects
of microgravity, and a solar observatory.
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.To save 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.
==== Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (1972–1975)
====
On May 24, 1972, US President Richard M. Nixon
and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin signed an
agreement calling for a joint manned space
mission, and declaring intent for all future
international manned spacecraft to be capable
of docking with each other. This authorized
the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), involving
the rendezvous and docking in Earth orbit
of a surplus Apollo Command/Service Module
with a Soyuz spacecraft. The mission took
place in July 1975. This was the last US manned
space flight until the first orbital flight
of the Space Shuttle in April 1981.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
and the International Space Station.
==== Space Shuttle program (1972–2011) ====
The Space Shuttle became the major focus of
NASA in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Planned
as a frequently launchable and mostly reusable
vehicle, 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 known human space flight.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) and carry
a maximum payload (to low orbit) of 24,400
kg (54,000 lb). Missions could last from 5
to 17 days and crews could be from 2 to 8
astronauts.On 20 missions (1983–98) 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. Another famous series
of missions were the launch and later successful
repair of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990
and 1993, respectively.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. 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. 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.
==== International Space Station (1993–present)
====
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. 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). The station
consists of pressurized modules, external
trusses, solar arrays and other components,
which have been launched by Russian Proton
and Soyuz rockets, and the US Space Shuttles.
It is currently being assembled in Low Earth
Orbit. The on-orbit assembly began in 1998,
the completion of the US Orbital Segment occurred
in 2011 and the completion of the Russian
Orbital Segment is expected by 2016. The ownership
and use of the space station is established
in intergovernmental treaties and agreements
which divide the station into two areas and
allow Russia to retain full ownership of the
Russian Orbital Segment (with the exception
of Zarya), with the US Orbital Segment allocated
between the other international partners.
Long duration missions to the ISS are referred
to as ISS Expeditions. Expedition crew members
typically spend approximately six months on
the ISS. 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. Crew
size is expected to be increased to seven,
the number the ISS was designed for, once
the Commercial Crew Program becomes operational.
The ISS has been continuously occupied for
the past 18 years and 45 days, having exceeded
the previous record held by Mir; and has been
visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from
15 different nations.The station can be seen
from the Earth with the naked eye and, as
of 2018, is the largest artificial satellite
in Earth orbit with a mass and volume greater
than that of any previous space station. The
Soyuz spacecraft delivers crew members, stays
docked for their half-year-long missions and
then returns them home. Several uncrewed cargo
spacecraft service 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 American Dragon
spacecraft since 2012, 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 manned spacecraft
is ready, crew members will travel to and
from the International Space Station exclusively
aboard the Soyuz. The highest number of people
occupying the ISS has been thirteen; this
occurred three times during the late Shuttle
ISS assembly missions.The ISS program is expected
to continue until at least 2020, and may be
extended beyond 2028.
===== Commercial programs (2006–present)
=====
The development of the Commercial Resupply
Services (CRS) vehicles began in 2006 with
the purpose of creating American commercially
operated uncrewed cargo vehicles to service
the ISS. The development of these vehicles
was under a fixed price milestone-based program,
meaning that each company that received a
funded award had a list of milestones with
a dollar value attached to them that they
didn't receive until after they had successfully
completed the milestone. Companies were also
required to raise an unspecified amount of
private investment for their proposal.On December
23, 2008, NASA awarded Commercial Resupply
Services contracts to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences
Corporation. SpaceX uses its Falcon 9 rocket
and Dragon spacecraft. Orbital Sciences uses
its Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft.
The first Dragon resupply mission occurred
in May 2012. The first Cygnus resupply mission
occurred in September 2013. The CRS program
now provides for all America's ISS cargo needs;
with the exception of a few vehicle-specific
payloads that are delivered on the European
ATV and the Japanese HTV.
The Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program
was started in 2010 with the purpose of creating
American commercially operated crewed spacecraft
capable of delivering at least four crew members
to the ISS, staying docked for 180 days and
then returning them back to Earth. It is hoped
that these vehicles could also transport non-NASA
customers to private space stations such those
planned by Bigelow Aerospace. Like COTS, CCDev
is also a fixed price milestone-based developmental
program that requires some private investment.In
2010, NASA announced the winners of the first
phase of the program, a total of $50 million
was divided among five American companies
to foster research and development into human
spaceflight concepts and technologies in the
private sector. In 2011, the winners of the
second phase of the program were announced,
$270 million was divided among four companies.
In 2012, the winners of the third phase of
the program were announced, NASA provided
$1.1 billion divided among three companies
to further develop their crew transportation
systems. In 2014, the winners of the final
round were announced. SpaceX's Dragon V2 (planned
to be launched on a Falcon 9 v1.1) received
a contract valued up to $2.6 billion and Boeing's
CST-100 (to be launched on an Atlas V) received
a contract valued up to $4.2 billion. NASA
expects these vehicles to begin transporting
humans to the ISS in 2019.
==== Beyond Low Earth Orbit program (2010–2017)
====
For missions beyond low Earth orbit (BLEO),
NASA has been directed to develop the Space
Launch System (SLS), a Saturn-V class rocket,
and the two to six person, beyond low Earth
orbit spacecraft, Orion. In February 2010,
President Barack Obama's administration proposed
eliminating public funds for the Constellation
program and shifting greater responsibility
of servicing the ISS to private companies.
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. In his speech, Obama called for a
manned mission to an asteroid as soon as 2025,
and a manned mission to Mars orbit by the
mid-2030s. The NASA Authorization Act of 2010
was passed by Congress and signed into law
on October 11, 2010. The act officially canceled
the Constellation program.The Authorization
Act 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. The
Orion spacecraft, which was being developed
as part of the Constellation program, was
chosen to fulfill this role. The Space Launch
System is planned to launch both Orion and
other necessary hardware for missions beyond
low Earth orbit. 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 mt into LEO. It is then planned
to be upgraded to 105 mt and then eventually
to 130 mt. Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1),
an unmanned test flight of Orion's crew module,
was launched on December 5, 2014, atop a Delta
IV Heavy rocket. Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1)
is the unmanned initial launch of SLS that
would also send Orion on a circumlunar trajectory,
which is planned for 2019.
NASA's next major space initiative is to be
the construction of the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway
(LOP-G, formerly known as the "Deep Space
Gateway"). This initiative is to involve the
construction of a new "Space-Station" type
of habitation, 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. This space
station will be designed primarily for non-continuous
human habitation. The first tentative steps
of returning to manned lunar missions will
be Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2), which is
to include the Orion crew module, propelled
by the SLS, and is to launch in 2022. This
mission is to be a 10- to 14-day mission planned
to briefly place a crew of four into Lunar
orbit. The construction of the "Lunar Orbital
Platform" is to begin with the following Exploration
Mission-3 (EM-3), which is planned to deliver
a crew of 4 to Lunar orbit along with the
first module(s) of the new space-station.
This mission will last for up to 26 days.
On June 5, 2016, NASA and DARPA announced
plans to also build a series of new X-planes
over the next 10 years. One of the planes
will be the Quiet Supersonic Technology project,
burning low-carbon biofuels and generating
quiet sonic booms.NASA plans to build full
scale deep space habitats such as the Lunar
Orbital Platform and the Nautilus-X as part
of its Next Space Technologies for Exploration
Partnerships (NextSTEP) program.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
2033.
=== Unmanned programs ===
More than 1,000 unmanned missions have been
designed to explore the Earth and the solar
system. Besides exploration, communication
satellites have also been launched by NASA.
The missions 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 unmanned 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.
A more recent Earth mission, not related to
the Explorer program, was the Hubble Space
Telescope, which as mentioned above was brought
into orbit in 1990.The inner Solar System
has been made the goal of at least four unmanned
programs. The first was Mariner in the 1960s
and '70s, 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.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.
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. 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.Pioneers 10 and 11 and both Voyager probes
carry messages from the Earth to extraterrestrial
life. 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. 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.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.
=== Activities (2010–2017) ===
NASA's ongoing investigations include in-depth
surveys of Mars (Mars 2020 and InSight) and
Saturn and studies of the Earth and the Sun.
Other active spacecraft missions are Juno
for Jupiter, New Horizons (for Jupiter, Pluto,
and beyond), 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–). In the early 2000s, NASA
was put on course for the Moon, however in
2010 this program was cancelled (see Constellation
program). As part of that plan the Shuttle
was going to be replaced, however, although
it was retired its replacement was also cancelled,
leaving the US with no human spaceflight launcher
for the first time in over three decades.
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. On the horizon of NASA's plans is the
MAVEN spacecraft as part of the Mars Scout
Program to study the atmosphere of Mars.On
December 4, 2006, NASA announced it was planning
a permanent Moon base. 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." In 2010, President Barack Obama
halted existing plans, including the Moon
base, and directed a generic focus on manned
missions to asteroids and Mars, as well as
extending support for the International Space
Station.Since 2011, NASA's strategic goals
have been
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 participateIn
August 2011, NASA accepted the donation of
two space telescopes from the National Reconnaissance
Office. Despite being stored unused, the instruments
are superior to the Hubble Space Telescope.In
September 2011, NASA announced the start of
the Space Launch System program to develop
a human-rated heavy lift vehicle. The Space
Launch System is intended to launch the Orion
Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and other elements
towards the Moon, near-Earth asteroids, and
one day Mars. The Orion MPCV conducted an
unmanned test launch on a Delta IV Heavy rocket
in December 2014.The James Webb Space Telescope
(JWST) is currently scheduled to launch in
May 2020.
On August 6, 2012, NASA landed the rover Curiosity
on Mars. On August 27, 2012, Curiosity transmitted
the first pre-recorded message from the surface
of Mars back to Earth, made by Administrator
Charlie Bolden:
Hello. This is Charlie Bolden, NASA Administrator,
speaking to you via the broadcast capabilities
of the Curiosity Rover, which is now on the
surface of Mars.
Since the beginning of time, humankind's curiosity
has led us to constantly seek new life…new
possibilities just beyond the horizon. I want
to congratulate the men and women of our NASA
family as well as our commercial and government
partners around the world, for taking us a
step beyond to Mars.
This is an extraordinary achievement. Landing
a rover on Mars is not easy – others have
tried – only America has fully succeeded.
The investment we are making…the knowledge
we hope to gain from our observation and analysis
of Gale Crater, will tell us much about the
possibility of life on Mars as well as the
past and future possibilities for our own
planet. Curiosity will bring benefits to Earth
and inspire a new generation of scientists
and explorers, as it prepares the way for
a human mission in the not too distant future.
Thank you.
=== Recent and planned activities ===
NASA's ongoing investigations include in-depth
surveys of Mars (Mars 2020 and InSight) and
Saturn and studies of the Earth and the Sun.
Other active spacecraft missions are Juno
for Jupiter, New Horizons (for Jupiter, Pluto,
and beyond), 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–).
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. On the horizon of NASA's plans is the
MAVEN spacecraft as part of the Mars Scout
Program to study the atmosphere of Mars.There
was a new executive administration in the
United States, which directed NASA to send
Humans to Mars by the year 2033. Foci in general
for NASA were noted as human space exploration,
space science, and technology. The Europa
Clipper and Mars 2020 continue to be supported
for their planned schedules.In 2018, NASA
alongside with other companies including Sensor
Coating Systems, Pratt & Whitney, Monitor
Coating and UTRC have 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 1,500C and beyond. The final goal of
this project is improving the safety of jet
engines as well as increasing efficiency and
reducing CO2 emissions.
InSight, Launched and en route to Mars in
2018
New Horizons, Kuiper belt object flyby EOY
2018, January 2019 planned
Osiris-Rex, en route for asteroid sample return
on September 24, 2023
Mars 2020 rover (planned)
Europa Clipper (planned)
Misc. Discovery Missions
Misc. Explorer Missions
New Frontier mission including New Horizons,
Juno, and Osiris-Rex
Earth Observation, Solar and Astronomical
observatories
James Webb Space Telescope (planned)
Parker Solar Probe, launched August 2018
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS),
launched in April 2018
Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST)
(planned)
== 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 accident, Congress required that
the ASAP submit an annual report to the NASA
Administrator and to Congress. 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).The National Aeronautics and
Space Administration Authorization Act of
2014 reaffirmed the importance of ASAP.
== Directives ==
Some of the major NASA directives were to
land people on the Moon, build the space shuttle,
and build a large space station. Typically,
the major directives had the intervention
of the science advisory, political, funding,
and public interest that synergized into various
waves of effort often heavily swayed by technical,
funding, and worldwide events. For example,
there was a major push to build Space Station
Freedom in the 1980s, but when the Cold War
ended, the Russians, the Americans and other
international partners came together to build
the International Space Station.
In the 2010s, the major shift was the retirement
of the Space Shuttle and the development of
a new manned heavy lift rocket, the Space
Launch System. Missions for the new System
have varied but overall, they were similar
as it primarily involved the desire to send
a human into the space. The Space Exploration
Initiative of the 1980s opened newer avenues
of galaxy exploration.
In the coming decades, the focus is gradually
shifting towards exploration of planet Mars;
however, some differences exist over the technologies
to develop and focus on for the exploration.
One of the options considered was the Asteroid
Redirect Mission (ARM). ARM had largely been
defunded in 2017, but the key technologies
developed for ARM would be utilized for future
exploration, especially on a solar electric
propulsion system.Longer project execution
timelines means its up to the future officials
to execute on a directive, which often leads
to directional mismanagement. For example,
a Shuttle replacement has numerous components
involved, each making some headway before
being called off for various reasons including
the National Aerospace Plane, Venture Star,
Orbital Space Plane, Ares I, and others. The
asteroid mission was not a major directive
in the 2010s. Instead, the general support
rested with the long term goal of getting
humans to Mars. The space shuttle was retired
and much of the existing road map was shelved
including the then planned Lunar Return and
Ares I human launch vehicle.
Previously, in the early 2000s, there was
a plan called the Constellation Program but
this was defunded in the early 2010s. In the
1990s, there was a plan called "Faster, Better,
Cheaper" In the 1980s, there was a directive
to build a manned space station.
=== 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.
=== Space Policy Directive 1 ===
In December 2017, on the 45th anniversary
of the last manned mission to the Lunar surface,
President Donald Trump approved a directive
that includes a lunar mission on the pathway
to Mars and beyond.
We'll learn. 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.
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.
== Research ==
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 on space missions.
Shortages of this material have curtailed
deep space missions since the turn of the
millennia. An example of a spacecraft that
was not developed because of a shortage of
this material was New Horizons 2.The earth
science research program was created and first
funded in the 1980s under the administrations
of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.NASA
started an annual competition in 2014 named
Cubes in Space. 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, Kalam
SAT, built by an Indian team, was launched.
=== Climate study ===
NASA also researches and publishes on climate
change. Its statements concur with the global
scientific consensus that the global climate
is warming. Bob Walker, who has advised the
45th President of the United States 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.
== Facilities ==
NASA's facilities are research, construction
and communication centers to help its missions.
Some facilities serve more than one application
for historic or administrative reasons. NASA
also operates a short-line railroad at the
Kennedy Space Center and uses special aircraft.
John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), is one
of the best-known NASA facilities. It has
been the launch site for every United States
human space flight since 1968. Although such
flights are currently on pause, KSC continues
to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch
facilities for America's civilian space program
from three pads at the adjoining Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station.
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston
is home to the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission
Control Center, where all flight control is
managed for manned space missions. JSC is
the lead NASA center for activities regarding
the International Space Station and also houses
the NASA Astronaut Corps that selects, trains,
and provides astronauts as crew members for
US and international space missions.
Another major facility is Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Alabama at which the
Saturn 5 rocket and Skylab were developed.
The JPL worked together with ABMA, one of
the agencies behind Explorer 1, the first
American space mission.
The ten NASA field centers are:
John F. Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
Armstrong Flight Research Center (formerly
Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Facility),
Edwards, California
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, near Pasadena,
California
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
John H. Glenn Research Center, Cleveland,
Ohio
George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville,
Alabama
John C. Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis,
MississippiNumerous other facilities are operated
by NASA, including 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.
== Budget ==
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. 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). 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."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.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.In
Fiscal Year 2016, NASA received $19.3 billion.President
Donald Trump signed the NASA Transition Authorization
Act of 2017 in March, which set the 2017 budget
at around $19.5 billion. The budget is also
reported as $19.3 billion for 2017, with $20.7
billion proposed for FY2018.Examples of some
proposed FY2018 budgets:
Exploration: $4.79 billion
Planetary science: $2.23 billion
Earth science: $1.92 billion
Aeronautics: $0.685 billion
== 
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. 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) gallons 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. 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. NASA addressed environmental
concerns with its canceled Constellation program
in accordance with the National Environmental
Policy Act in 2011. In contrast, ion engines
use harmless noble gases like xenon for propulsion.On
May 8, 2003, Environmental Protection Agency
recognized NASA as the first federal agency
to directly use landfill gas to produce energy
at one of its facilities—the Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.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.
== Gallery ==
=== Observations ===
=== Spacecraft ===
=== 
Planned spacecraft ===
=== Concepts ===
NASA has developed oftentimes elaborate plans
and technology concepts, some of which become
worked into real plans.
== Examples of missions by target ==
Here are some selected examples of missions
to planetary-sized objects. Other major targets
of study are the Earth itself, the Sun, and
smaller solar system bodies like asteroids
and comets. In addition, the moons of the
planets or body are also studied.
Examples of missions for the Sun
Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph
Solar Dynamics Observatory
STEREO
Ulysses (spacecraft)
Parker Solar ProbeExamples of missions to
small solar system bodies (e.g. Comets and
asteroids)
NEAR Shoemaker
Dawn (spacecraft)
OSIRIS-RExExamples of missions to the Moon
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
LADEE
== See also ==
== Notes
