Organization · USA · est. 1958
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
The United States' civilian space agency, founded in 1958 in response to the Soviet Sputnik. It oversaw the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.
CountryUSA
Founded1958
Programs7
People12
PROGRAMS
Space ShuttleThe Space Shuttle (Space Transportation System) was the American crewed reusable spaceplane program, which flew 135 missions between 1981 and 2011. As the first partly reusable spacecraft it deployed satellites and the Hubble telescope and built most of the International Space Station — at the cost of two tragedies, Challenger and Columbia.
Project GeminiProject Gemini (1965–1966) bridged Mercury and Apollo — ten crewed flights that trained orbital docking, spacewalks, and long-duration crew survival in space.
Project MercuryProject Mercury (1958–1963) was America’s first crewed spaceflight program. Its goal was to safely put a human into orbit and bring him home — across six flights, seven selected pilots, the “Mercury Seven”, achieved it.
Apollo 17Apollo 17 (December 1972) was NASA's final crewed Moon landing and remains, to date, humanity's most recent visit to the lunar surface. Commander Eugene Cernan and geologist Harrison Schmitt spent three days at Taurus-Littrow, while Ronald Evans orbited above.
Apollo 13Apollo 13, launched in April 1970, was NASA's third crewed Moon-landing attempt. An oxygen tank explosion crippled the spacecraft en route to the Moon, and the crew survived by turning the lunar module into a lifeboat for the journey back to Earth.
ApolloThe Apollo program (1961–1972) was the American crewed Moon-landing program led by NASA. It comprised 11 crewed missions and culminated in the first human Moon landing with Apollo 11, followed by five more successful landings.
International Space Station (ISS)Under construction in low Earth orbit since 1998 and continuously inhabited since November 2000, the station is a joint project of five space agencies and the longest continuously operated human-made object in space.
NOTABLE PEOPLE
Rex WalheimCosmonaut / AstronautMission specialist and veteran of several shuttle flights.
Sandra MagnusCosmonaut / AstronautMission specialist responsible for payload and station operations.
Douglas HurleyCosmonaut / AstronautPilot of Atlantis on the program’s final flight.
Christopher FergusonCosmonaut / AstronautCommander of the final shuttle mission, STS-135.
Kathryn D. SullivanCosmonaut / AstronautMission specialist who later became the first American woman to perform a spacewalk.
Bruce McCandless IICosmonaut / AstronautMission specialist and veteran of earlier shuttle flights.
Steven A. HawleyCosmonaut / AstronautMission specialist involved in payload operations.
Charles F. BoldenCosmonaut / AstronautDiscovery pilot who later became NASA administrator.
Loren ShriverCosmonaut / AstronautMission commander and experienced shuttle pilot.
Gregory JarvisCosmonaut / AstronautBorn 24 August 1944 in Detroit, Michigan. He worked as an engineer at Hughes Aircraft, which nominated him as a payload specialist for an experiment on fluid behaviour in microgravity. His flight was repeatedly bumped in favour of other missions and scheduling changes before it finally took place on STS-51-L.
Christa McAuliffeCosmonaut / AstronautBorn 2 September 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts. She taught social studies at a high school in Concord, New Hampshire. In July 1985 NASA selected her from over 11,000 applicants as the first participant in the "Teacher in Space" project, under which she was to teach two lessons live from orbit to schoolchildren on Earth. STS-51-L was her only spaceflight.
Ronald McNairCosmonaut / AstronautBorn 21 October 1950 in Lake City, South Carolina. He studied physics and earned a PhD in laser physics from MIT in 1976. In 1984 he flew as a mission specialist on STS-41-B, becoming the second African-American in space. On Challenger's STS-51-L he flew his second and final mission.
KEY EVENTSON TIMELINE →
Jul 1958
Founding of NASAPresident Eisenhower signed the act establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a civilian response to the Soviet Sputnik.
Dec 1961
Gemini programThe Gemini program was approved as a bridge between Mercury and Apollo — it proved techniques (orbital rendezvous, spacewalks, long-duration flights) without which a Moon landing would not have been possible, while also serving as a backup test platform in case Apollo was delayed.
Nov 1963
Launch Escape SystemThe Launch Escape System tower atop the Apollo spacecraft was designed to pull the crew capsule away to safety in the event of a Saturn V launch failure. The concept was proven by the Pad Abort Test-1 (7 November 1963) using a boilerplate Apollo capsule.
Jul 1969
Apollo 11Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land in the Sea of Tranquility and become the first humans to set foot on the Moon.
Apr 1970
Apollo 13An oxygen tank explosion en route to the Moon forced the landing to be aborted; the crew used the lunar module as a lifeboat and returned safely to Earth.
Dec 1972
Apollo 17Cernan and Schmitt landed in the Taurus-Littrow valley — still the most recent crewed Moon landing.
Apr 1981
STS-1Young and Crippen flew Columbia on the first orbital flight of a reusable Space Shuttle.
Jan 1986
ChallengerSpace Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after launch due to an O-ring failure in its right solid rocket booster; the entire crew of seven was killed.