National Aeronautics and Space Administration

"NASA Insignia"

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, often abbreviated to NASA, is the official government space agency of the United States, serving since 1958, NASA has propelled the US space program with tons of achievements, and memories.

### History

#### 1958-1966: Early Days

NASA was created to combat the ever-growing Soviet space program, while these early days were filled with many failures, it also saw many great achievements, including the first spacecraft to leave Earth orbit (Pioneer 4, 1959), and the first spacecraft to flyby another planet (Mariner 2, 1962), however, the Soviet Union were able to make many of these achievements first, to the frustration of the U.S. government. Even with all of this, these early days saw semblance of hope, the Mercury Program saw the first American astronauts in space, the Gemini Program had many new spaceflight firsts for America, including the first EVA, and first space docking.

#### 1967-1975: Glory Days

Many argue that these years marked the glory days of NASA, and the peak of their existence. This era is mainly known for the success of the Apollo Program, a project to put the first humans on the Moon, the first crewed Lunar orbit was Apollo 8, which launched in December 1968, after a second Lunar orbit (Apollo 10, 1969), the first crewed Lunar landing was conducted in July 1969 in Apollo 11. There were 6 more Lunar landing attempts (1 failed) from 1969 until 1972, ending with Apollo 17 in December 1972. Robotic spaceflight also saw rapid advancement during this time, including the first spacecraft to orbit another planet (Mariner 9, 1971), the first spacecraft to \*land\* on another planet (Viking 1, 1975) and the first spacecraft to flyby one of the gas giants (Pioneer 10, 1973). Soon after the Apollo Program ended, Skylab was launched, the first US space station, launched in May 1973 aboard a modified Saturn V, Skylab was visited 3 times by crew in May, July and November 1973. The final big icon of the glory days was the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, which had an Apollo CSM and a Soyuz orbital craft dock with each other, the mission was launched in July 1975.

#### 1976-1980: Silent Era

These years were quite quiet when it came to American spaceflight, no human spaceflight missions were conducted during these years due to the development of the new Space Shuttle, and the only major science mission launched during this time were the Voyager missions, which launched in August and September 1977. With the Space Race over, things got quiet for quite a bit.

#### 1981-2011: Flight Era

##### 1981-1997: Early Flight Era

In April 1981, the new Space Shuttle debuted, a new partially reusable launch system which was meant to "revolutionize spaceflight" and for a while, things seemed to be going fine, human spaceflight began to take off again, until 1986. In January 1986, a Shuttle launch malfunctioned, and the rocket disintegrated in mid-air, killing all 7 astronauts inside. This failure caused the suspension of all Shuttle flights for 2 years, but after 1988, things seemed to be moving forward again, many new great things were done, including the launch of the Galileo and Cassini missions, and the Mars Pathfinder mission in 1996.

##### 1998-2011: Late Flight Era

In November 1998, construction began for the International Space Station, a joint project between multiple nations that would revolutionize human spaceflight, the Space Shuttle was used for most of the assembly missions and the later crewed expeditions of the ISS, however, during one of those expeditions in 2003, the orbital spaceplane disintegrated on re-entry, killing all 7 astronauts on board. After this second failure, the Shuttle was slated to retire, which it finally did in 2011, ending an era for NASA.

#### 2012-2018: Second Silent Era

For these 7 years, this wasn't a dark era, just another silent era, NASA was planning for a new direction for the agency that, like when the Shuttle was first being developed, halted much of spaceflight for that time.

#### 2019-2030: A New Dawn

In 2019, NASA announced the Artemis Program, a plan to begin bringing humans to the Moon again, and to set up a permanant Lunar base. During the early 2020s, a new skyrocket of spaceflight began, with the rise of private corporate firms and launch reusability, a new private space race began with different companies competing to dominate the new battlefield. During this time, there was also many new things done in science missions, including the James Webb Telescope, the Dragonfly mission, and IntelMars. This era ended in 2030 with the Artemis V mission, the first human landing on the Moon in 58 years.