Updated: Feb. 11, 2001

Animation--Images fading from Earth, Satellite, Shuttle, International Space Station, John Glenn and to planets

NASA Stands for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Dryden Flight Research Center is one of NASA's field centers. It is one of the world's most famous places to test airplanes and to carry out research to help make airplanes faster, safer, and use less fuel.

NASA's History

October 1, 1958, the official start of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was the beginning of a rich history of unique scientific and technological achievements in human space flight, aeronautics, space science, and space applications. Formed as a result of the Sputnik crisis of confidence, NASA inherited the earlier National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and other government organizations, and almost immediately began working on options for human space flight. NASA’s first high profile program was Project Mercury, an effort to learn if humans could survive in space, followed by Project Gemini, which built upon Mercury’s successes and used spacecraft built for two astronauts. NASA’s human space flight efforts then extended to the Moon with Project Apollo, culminating in 1969 when the Apollo 11 mission first put humans on the lunar surface. After the Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz Test Projects of the early and mid-1970s, NASA’s human space flight efforts again resumed in 1981, with the Space Shuttle program that continues today to help build the International Space Station.

NASA's Current Stories

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NASA's Schedule of News Events

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