When you think about NASA, you think about outer space, rockets, science, and other unexplainable things. Well, the space facts that everyone knows today wouldn’t be possible without the help of NASA’s remarkable work. Basically, the work of NASA is to conduct several scientific research on understanding the universe.
NASA or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is part of the United States government. Primarily, they deal with aeronautics and space exploration. But for years, they study a lot more than just space. Nowadays, NASA is also engaged in new developments such as improving air travel and some aspects of flight.
Today, science has gone such great lengths since the start of the space age. In line with that, there are countless discoveries that ranged from downright terrifying to amazing. A lot of people might get curious about what NASA is really up to these years. So here are several facts you should know to take a closer look at this administration.
1. The Founding of NASA
Before NASA was founded, there is the “National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics” or NACA. It’s a federal agency made by the United States on March 3, 1915, to promote aeronautical research. NACA was active for 43 years from March 3, 1915, to October 1, 1958. In 1958, the federal agency was dissolved.
All of the assets, personnel, and researches from NACA were transferred to a newly created administration. This administration, later on, was called the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). One of the NASA facts is that this agency was created to compete with the space race of the Soviet Union.
2. It’s More than Just Space Exploration
You may think that NASA is limited to just exploring the space, but the truth is, there are doing more than just that. It may be one of the most lesser-known facts about NASA, but they are also working on building satellites to help scientists in their research.
So how do they do studies from outer space? Well, NASA makes probes and send them into space. This is their way of studying things beyond and inside our solar system. On the other hand, as you may already know, NASA studies the planet Earth most of the time.
3. The Headquarters and Employees
You should probably know that NASA is one of the biggest and most significant agencies in the world. NASA’s headquarters is located at Washington, D.C. It has a total of nine centers, including the research and test facilities located in all other states of the country.
In addition to that, it also has a Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) which handles the operation and construction of planetary robotic spacecraft. NASA currently has more than 17,000 employees. But do you know that many of the people work as contractors? Well, yes, because astronauts are the best-known employees of NASA.
Most of the workers work as an engineer and scientists in NASA. They also offer other jobs like lawyers, teachers, researchers, and writers.
4. The First Project (Mercury Project)
NASA before was a small agency with only four major laboratories. They only got around eighty people working for them before. Wernher von Braun, an American aerospace engineer, led a group of scientists together with some German engineers into building rockets. This group already helped in making the Redstone missile for the US army.
NASA set up the Mercury project in 1960. Basically, this project was designed for them to be able to know if humans can survive in outer space. They run a series of research and tests, and after they had proved it, they moved on to the next step.
The first American in space is Alan Shepard, and after a year, he was followed by John Glenn and later became the first American to orbit the Earth.
5. NASA’s Future
Aside from building rockets, exploring the earth, and space, NASA is also engaged in investing in the programs and activities that could help inspire the youth. Well, not just the youth, but everyone else like educators and families. The agency believes that someday, the students will be the ones to explore space and become astronauts, engineers, and scientists.
They will become the new explorers and adventurers who will continue the studies that were left by the previous generation of scientists and engineers. NASA also provides training to the educators for them to know some new methods in teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
They don’t just offer this training in school, but they also provide online classes for the people to learn new things at home. You can simply say that NASA is doing everything they can to benefit human knowledge.
Takeaway
There are many facts you can get about NASA online, and the five listed above are some of those primary and knowledgeable facts. They have a lot of exciting topics that you may want to dig deeper for you to be able to understand everything. The best thing about having NASA as one of the biggest agencies is that they greatly helped a lot of people with their studies.
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