Evolution Of NASA

The History and Evolution of NASA

NASA was a result of the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II competitively trying to be the world’s biggest industrial giant. Without the Soviet Union releasing the Sputnik, the race for new inventions and innovations of technology for spacecraft would have never taken off. Also when John F. Kennedy was the president he made it a law that NASA had to have the rocket launched by the end of the decade, which would have been 1970, the rocket launched and succeeded landing the first man on the moon in 1969. NASA began with an average of only 100 million dollars which is only one fifth of what a rocket now costs to launch.

In the late 1940s, the Department of Defense did many kinds of research

NASA created the Apollo 8 mission, it revolved around the Moon through December 24-25, 1968, during the program, the crew read from the book of Genesis, it was another major achievement they accomplished on the way to the Moon. "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." (Neil A. Armstrong, 1). Neil A. Armstrong recited the famous words on the date July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 mission achieved Kennedy's challenge which was to successfully land Armstrong and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. on the Moon. Armstrong impressively piloted the lunar module to the lunar surface with only about 30 seconds worth of fuel left. After taking soil samples, pictures, and doing other tasks on the Moon, Armstrong and Aldrin made an appointment with their colleague Michael Collins in lunar orbit for a safe journey back to their home planet, Earth (NASA, 2). Five more successful lunar landing missions followed. The Apollo 13 mission of April 1970 lured the public's attention when astronauts and ground crews had to come up with different ways to succeed in their tasks to end the mission safely after an oxygen tank burst halfway through the trip to the Moon. Even though this mission never landed on the Moon, it augmented the idea that NASA had an extraordinary ability to

The Shuttle's first mission, STS-1, took off on April 12, 1981, revealing that it could take off upright and soar to an unpowered airplane kind of landing. On STS-6, during April 4-9, 1983, F. Story Musgrave and Donald H. Peterson managed the first Shuttle EVA, to test new spacesuits and work in the Shuttle's cargo bay. Sally K. Ride became the first American woman to fly in space when STS-7 lifted off on June 18, 1983 (my birthday), another early achievement of the Shuttle program. On January 28, 1986 a leak in the joints of one of two Solid Rocket Boosters attached to the Challenger orbiter caused the main liquid fuel tank to explode 73 seconds after launch, killing all 7 crew members. (NASA’s Research Lab, 7)The Shuttle program was grounded for over two years, while NASA and its contractors worked to remake the Solid Rocket Boosters and apply management reforms to ensure safety. On September 29, 1988, the Shuttle successfully returned to flight and NASA then flew a total of 87 successful missions. Another tragedy occurred again on February 1, 2003, however. As the Columbia orbiter was returning to Earth on the STS-107 mission, it deteriorated about 15 minutes before it was to have landed. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board was formed quickly and stated what happened was, “A small piece of foam had come off the External Tank and had struck the Reinforced