PRESENTATION ON NASA

BY : Advait Shashi Kumar

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Executive branch agency of the united states government responsible for the nation's civilian space program and aeronautical and aero space research.
It was established by the national aeronautics and space act on July 29, 1958 it replaced its predecessor, the national advisory committee administration (NACA). The agency became operational on October 1, 1958

NASA has led U.S. efforts for space exploration since, including the Apollo moon-landing missions, the sky lab space station, and later the space shuttle.

Currently, NASA is supporting the International space station and has been developing the manned Orion spacecraft.

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. Several months of debate produced an agreement that a new federal agency was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was also created at this time to develop space technology for military application.

NACA TO NASA

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 46year-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. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, of which von Braun's team was a part, and the 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 von Braun) which in turn incorporated the technology of Robert Goddard's earlier works. In December 1958, NASA gained control of the jet propulsion laboratary, a contractor facility operated by the California Institute of Technology.

1. Project Mercury
2. Project Gemini 3. Apollo program 4. Skylab 5. Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) 6. Space Shuttle program 7. International Space Station

May 5, 1961 launch of Redstone rocket and Freedom 7 with Alan Shepard on first US manned sub-orbital spaceflight

NASA's Skylab space station

The Apollo program landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, while Michael Collins orbited above. These missions returned a wealth of scientific data and 381.7 kilograms (842 lb) of lunar samples. Experiments included soil mechanics, meteoroids, seismic, heat flow, lunar ranging, magnetic fields, and solar wind experiments. Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last in December 1972. In these six Apollo spaceflights twelve men walked on the Moon

Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin salutes US flag

During much of the 1990s, NASA was faced with shrinking annual budgets due to congressional belt-tightening. Daniel Goldin, pioneered the "faster, better, cheaper" approach that enabled NASA to cut costs while still delivering a wide variety of aerospace programs (Discovery Program).
That method was criticized and re-evaluated following the twin losses of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander in 1999.