NATIONAL AERONAUTICS & SPACE ADMINISTRATION CREATED
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On July 29, 1958, the Congress of the United States passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA. The act, signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, set up NASA as a civilian agency to operate the space program of the United States.
The agency, which would begin operations on October 1, 1958, was created in the aftermath of the October 4, 1957 launch of the world's 1st man-made satellite, Sputnik, by the Soviet Union.
Earlier, on January 1, 1958, the United States launched Explorer I, our first successful space satellite. President John F. Kennedy would make the space effort an integral part of his New Frontier program and set the goal in 1961 to land a man on the moon before decade's end.
Today NASA has a budget of $17.8 billion and more than 18,000 employees. It has directed the Apollo missions to the moon as well as Skylab, the Space Station and the Space Shuttle.
Dr. William H. Pickering* and JFK
Mariner Spacecraft Model
White House Oval Office
NASA Photo (1961)
^William Hayward Pickering (1910-2004) was born in Wellington, New Zealand & educated at the University of Canterbury & California Institute of Technology. His speciality was electrical engineering. WHP directed the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
