What Does NASA Stand For?

NASA is an Executive Branch agency and is part of the United States government. The primary purpose of the agency is aerospace research, aeronautics, and the civilian space program.

NASA is an acronym for “National Aeronautics and Space Administration.”  NASA was established on July 29, in 1958 by President Dwight Eisenhower. He signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which established the agency.

It officially began functioning on October 1, 1958. NASA absorbed the previous United States agency for space research, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (also known as NACA).

When NASA absorbed this agency, it absorbed about eight thousand employees, and the agency’s budget of about one hundred million dollars. It also inherited the agency’s three research laboratories and the agency’s two test facilities. These inherited laboratories were the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, and the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory.

NASA's Projects

One of the first projects of NASA was Project Mercury. Project Mercury began in 1958. It was a project that involved the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, and the Air Force. The project was a response to the Soviet’s exploration of space. The mission was an attempt to discern if humans could survive in space.

On May 5, 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American in space. He piloted the Freedom 7 and was in space for approximately fifteen minutes. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. After John Glenn accomplished this, three more orbital flights succeeded him as part of Project Mercury.

Project Gemini

NASA soon began Project Gemini. The purpose of Project Gemini was to develop techniques that were required for missions to the moon. On March 23, 1965, the first mission under Project Gemini was launched.

Gus Grissom and John Young flew the first Gemini flight, and the flight was called Gemini 3. Gemini 3 was followed by nine other missions that gathered the information that was necessary for individuals to land on the moon.

Project Gemini perfected such skills as docking with another vehicle, how humans could survive for long durations in space, and the medical effects that space travel had on humans.

The Apollo Program

NASA then began the Apollo program. The purpose of the Apollo program was to successfully land humans on the moon. Apollo 11 was successful in this goal, and the first humans landed on the moon on July 20, 1969.

The astronauts were Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin. Michael Collins was also part of the mission, but he did not land on the moon, he orbited above it. Apollo 11 was followed by five other missions that were also successful at landing humans on the moon.

The last Apollo mission was in December of 1972. Through the Apollo program, twelve men successfully walked on the moon. Additionally, these individuals collected important data from the moon that was studied and analyzed.

Altogether, the missions returned with about eight hundred and forty pounds of samples from the moon. Some of the experiments that the astronauts conducted on the moon included, but were not limited to, the following: soil mechanics, heat flow, lunar ranging, magnetic fields, and solar wind experiments.

NASA Space Shuttles

During the late seventies and early eighties, the focus of NASA switched to space shuttles. Space shuttles were specifically designed to be reusable and for frequent use. The first space shuttle that NASA launched was Columbia, and it was launched in 1981.

By 1985, NASA had built four different space shuttles. After the Cold War ended, the United States began an interaction with the Russian space program. The two countries built the largest space station ever, known as the International Space Station.