NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (later North American Space Agency) was the agency of the United States Federal Government responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research.

From 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch an artificial satellite for the International Geophysical Year (1957–58). An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard. After the Soviet launch of the world's first artificial satellite (Sputnik1) on October 4, 1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. The US Congress, alarmed by the perceived threat to national security and technological leadership (known as the "Sputnik crisis"), urged immediate and swift action; President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his advisers counselled more deliberate measures. This led to an agreement that a new federal agency mainly based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was created in February 1958 to develop space technology for military application.

US President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA with a distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became operational on October 1, 1958.

On July 29, 1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, establishing NASA. When it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA absorbed the 46-year-old NACA intact; its 8,000 employees, three major research laboratories (Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory) and two small test facilities .Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA. A significant contributor to NASA's entry into the Space Race with the Soviet Union was the technology from the German rocket program led by Wernher von Braun, who was now working for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), which in turn incorporated the technology of American scientist Robert Goddard's earlier works. Earlier research efforts within the US Air Force and many of ARPA's early space programs were also transferred to NASA. In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a contractor facility operated by the California Institute of Technology.

NASA conducted many manned and unmanned spaceflight programs throughout their history. Unmanned programs launched the first American artificial satellites into Earth orbit for scientific and communications purposes, and sent scientific probes to explore the planets of the Sol System, starting with Venus and Mars, and including "grand tours" of the outer planets (and then out of the Sol System) with the Voyager Probes, culminating with Voyager 6. Manned programs sent the first Americans into low Earth orbit (LEO), won the Space Race with the Soviet Union by landing twelve men on Luna from 1969 to 1972 in the Apollo program, developed a semi-reusable LEO Space Shuttle, and developed LEO space station capability by themselves and with the cooperation of several other nations including post-Soviet Russia. Some missions included both manned and unmanned aspects, such as the Galileo probe, which was deployed by astronauts in Earth orbit before being sent unmanned to Jupiter.

In 2020, NASA began colonisation efforts on Luna. Initially a purely American project, other organisations soon became involved, including the Russian Roscosmos State Corporation and the European Space Agency. By 2023, the efforts were being coordinated by the United Nations.

For a decade, space exploration and colonisation efforts are lead by the UN, with NASA being little more than a subsidiary. In 2036 with the end of the Eugenics Wars, the UN was disbanded. The cooperation that had been hoped would lead to a united human effort for the stars had collapsed, and NASA became the official space exploration agency of the North American Alliance (and was renamed as the North American Space Agency, although this left her acronym unchanged). Little was accomplished however, with most of their funding diverted to reconstruction and re-arming projects. Their most infamous project of this period was the Event Horizon, an attempt at FTL travel ran jointly with the European Space Agency.

In 2044, the NAA reorganised NASA into a new entity dedicated to space warfare and defence. This organisation was christened NAASDA, or the North American Alliance Space Defence Agency. Mankind's peaceful exploration of space had ended.