Karl Radek

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“National administration of the Aeronautical and the space”) more known under its Abbreviation NASA , is the government agency responsible for the space program of the the United States of America.

NASA was created the July 29th 1958 to put an end to the competitions between the various branches of the Armed forces of the United States for the placing in orbit of a satellite in order to compete with the Soviet S. Its director is always a civilian chosen, after consultation and agreement of the American Sénat, by the President. NASA includes/understands 18 research centres on the American ground of which the famous Ames Research Center (research center) of Mountain View or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of Pasadena (laboratory of propulsion). Its projected budget for the year 2006 rises to 16.456 billion dollars.

History

Race with Space

Following the launching of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1, on October 4th, 1957, the Congrès of the United States of America decided to create a new federal agency to organize all the space activities of the United States.

July 29th, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act sealing the fate of NASA. At its beginnings, on October 1st 1958, NASA absorbed the four laboratories and them: 8000 employees of his predecessor, the National Advisory Committe for Aeronautics (NACA). The most important contribution was probably the German program of Werner von Braun, now considered as the father of the American space program.

The first projects of NASA were research on the space flight of the human beings. With its Program Mercury, started in 1958, NASA undertook to discover people so could live in space. May 5th, 1961, Alan Shepard became first American in space when it controlled Freedom 7 for a fifteen minutes flight. John Glenn orbited around the Earth on February 20th, 1962 during the five hours flight of Friendship 7 .

After the Mercury project, the Programme Gemini got under way with like drank in the long term to send a man on the Moon, thanks to the Programme Apollo. There were twelve Gemini missions, including ten with astronauts, which proved that it is possible to remain in space during several days and to moor between two spaceships.

Program Apollo

Other former missions

Although NASA spends the majority of its budget for the space flight of the human beings, there was many robot-like missions. In 1962, the mission Mariner 2 was launched and became the first spaceship to be passed close to an another planet (Venus in this case). The missions Of arranging, Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter were essential to discover the nature of lunar surface before trying to send astronauts to it. After, both probes Viking unloaded on the surface of Mars and returned photographs color to the Earth. Perhaps more impressive were the missions Pioneer and Voyager which visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Having lost the lunar race, the the USSR changed its step. July 17th, 1975, Apollo 18 moored with the Soviet vessel Soyuz 19, in the project Apollo-Soyouz. Although the Cold war continued until the Années 1990, it was one important moment of the history of NASA, and the international collaboration which is currency nowadays began with this mission. The first Space station of the United States, Skylab, was built at the end of the Années 1970.

Era of the shuttles

The Space shuttle became the center of principal interest of NASA at the end of the Années 1970 and during the Eighties. Intended to be launched often and recovered partly, four shuttles were built before 1985. The first, Columbia, were launched on April 12th, 1981.

But the flights of the shuttles were much more expensive than NASA had planned it. After the catastrophe of Challenger on January 28th, 1986, the public opinion was again focused on the interest of the shuttles, then on the International space station. However, the missions as the Program To travel through the solar system were regarded as more important still.

The shuttle was used for launching great projects like the Space telescope Hubble. This enormous instrument is a collaboratif project of the European space agency and NASA.

In 1995, collaboration between Russia and the United States was completed with the missions Navette- Mir. This collaboration continues until today, Russia and the United States being the largest partners of the construction of the greatest space station ever built - the International space station (English ISS). After the disaster of Columbia in 2003, NASA used Russian vehicles to go with the ISS.

The program of the shuttles of NASA already recorded 112 successful launches.

Project X-33 or end of the shuttles

Future of NASA

The most significant space adventures of these last years were probably the mission Mars Pathfinder of 1997. The press of the whole world published photographs of the undercarriage and its robot, called Sojourner. There also was the probe Mars Global Surveyor, which carried out experiments of 1997 until 2005. Since 2001, Mars Odyssey seeks evidence of the existence last or present of liquid water and volcanos over Mars. NASA continued the exploration of red planet with vessels as Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which arrived in trimmings of Mars in 2006.

The space shuttle Columbia which disintegrated on February 1st, 2003 - involving in death six Americans and an Israeli - because a 29 months interruption of the program of the space shuttles. In 2005, in spite of important engineering changes, the incident of the loss of insulating foam had been repeated on Discovery, but without consequences this time. And, after orbital exits which had made it possible to check its integrity, it had been able to return without encumber.

January 14th, 2004, ten days after the landing of the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit , the president George W. Bush announced a new plan for the future of NASA, called the Vision for Space Exploration which gave the Projet Constellation. According to this plan, one will return to the Moon before 2018, and one will establish advanced stations there. The Space shuttle will be withdrawn from the service in 2010, date planned for the end of the assembly of the elements of the ISS. The successor will be the Crew Exploration Vehicle envisaged as from 2014. In 2004, the Congress of the United States of America agree to provide the financing to this program.

In 2004, NASA established the Centennial Challenges, of the technological prices for non-governmental groups. The Challenges include/understand practical things, like gloves of more effective astronauts. The twin robots Spirit and Opportunity, which landed over Mars respectively on January 4th, 2004 and on January 25th, 2004, also brought a considerable number of information over Mars, their life was to be limited at the beginning only at a few months. Actually, these robots function always today (August 2007) thanks to the sophisticated solar panels installed on eux : Opportunity thus arrived in an immense plain where geological traces of passed of planet remain, Spirit in an enormous crater of 160 km broad impact.

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