NASA

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is the United States government agency responsible for the national space program and aerospace research, both civilian and military.

Founded on July 29, 1958, with the signature of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, NASA officially began its operations in October of the same year. Among the key figures of its early years was Wernher von Braun, who became the director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, leading a team of about 7,000 people.

In a context dominated by the Cold War and the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, NASA’s early programs focused on sending humans into space. The first major project was the Mercury Program, designed to determine whether humans could survive and function in space. On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American to fly into space, completing a 15-minute suborbital flight aboard the Mercury-Redstone 3 capsule. A few months later, on February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth during the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission.

Following the successes of the Mercury program, NASA launched the more ambitious Apollo Program, with the goal of landing a man on the Moon. On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced the United States’ intention to “land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth” before the end of the decade.

Despite challenges and the tragic loss of the Apollo 1 crew, NASA achieved this goal with the launch of Apollo 11, which on July 20, 1969, landed the first human crew on the lunar surface. As Neil Armstrong stepped down from the lunar module, he uttered the historic phrase: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” In total, twelve astronauts walked on the Moon during six missions that concluded in December 1972.

In recent years, NASA’s focus has gradually shifted toward the exploration of Mars, with the development of advanced technologies for robotic missions and, in the future, for crewed missions.