| National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) |
|
The US government agency responsible for civilian manned and robotic activities in space, including launch vehicle development and operations, scientific satellites (such as orbiting observatories) and space probes (such as missions to the Moon and planets), and advanced satellite technology development. Weather and communications satellites may be turned over to other agencies upon successful installation in space. NASA was created on 29 July 1958, when US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. This legislation was widely acknowledged to have been passed by the US Congress in response to the technological challenge perceived in the successful and unexpected launching of the first artificial Earth satellite (Sputnik 1) by the Soviet Union. The headquarters of NASA are in Washington, DC, and it operates field centres and other facilities at various locations in the USA as well as several tracking stations around the world. See also: Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Kennedy Space Center, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. |