Happy Birthday, NASA [
http://www.hq.nasa.…]! The National Aeronautics and Space Administration officially began operations on October 1, 1958, absorbing its forerunner organization [
http://www.hq.nasa.…] the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, NACA. Its landmark achievements in human spaceflight include [
http://www.hq.nasa.…] the Mercury and Gemini Projects culminating in the Apollo Project moon landings in the 1960s and early 1970s, Apollo-Soyuz and Skylab in the 1970s, and the Space Shuttle program of the 1980s and 1990s. (Pictured is [
http://www.ksc.nasa…images/captions/KSC- 98EC-0691.html ] the June 1998 launch of the [
http://spaceplace.j…] Space Shuttle Discovery.) NASA's science programs [
http://www.hq.nasa.…] have produced the robotic exploration of our Solar System, views of the Universe [
http://universe.gsf…] across the electromagnetic spectrum, and valuable meteorological [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and remote-sensing Earth observations. At birth, NASA's [
http://www.hq.nasa.…] priorities were largely driven by the pressures and competitions [
http://www.hq.nasa.…] of the Cold War. But looking back over 40 years [
http://www.hq.nasa.…], the sum of its accomplishments have produced needed new technologies and a vital new perspective on Planet Earth and the Cosmos.
Explanation
Happy Birthday, NASA [
http://www.hq.nasa.…]! The National Aeronautics and Space Administration officially began operations on October 1, 1958, absorbing its forerunner organization [
http://www.hq.nasa.…] the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, NACA. Its landmark achievements in human spaceflight include [
http://www.hq.nasa.…] the Mercury and Gemini Projects culminating in the Apollo Project moon landings in the 1960s and early 1970s, Apollo-Soyuz and Skylab in the 1970s, and the Space Shuttle program of the 1980s and 1990s. (Pictured is [
http://www.ksc.nasa…images/captions/KSC- 98EC-0691.html ] the June 1998 launch of the [
http://spaceplace.j…] Space Shuttle Discovery.) NASA's science programs [
http://www.hq.nasa.…] have produced the robotic exploration of our Solar System, views of the Universe [
http://universe.gsf…] across the electromagnetic spectrum, and valuable meteorological [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and remote-sensing Earth observations. At birth, NASA's [
http://www.hq.nasa.…] priorities were largely driven by the pressures and competitions [
http://www.hq.nasa.…] of the Cold War. But looking back over 40 years [
http://www.hq.nasa.…], the sum of its accomplishments have produced needed new technologies and a vital new perspective on Planet Earth and the Cosmos.
Explanation
