NASA History
Milestones in Space Exploration and Science
With this simple preamble, the Congress and the President of the United States created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on October 1, 1958: “An Act to provide for research into the problems of flight within and outside the Earth’s atmosphere, and for other purposes.” NASA’s birth was directly related to the pressures of national defense. After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in the Cold War, a broad contest over the ideologies and allegiances of nonaligned nations. During this period, space exploration emerged as a major area of contest and became known…
