NASA

** Article: **
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is one of America’s best accomplishments even up to this day. NASA has achieved goals that man sought for centuries and will still continue to do so. During its 53 years of existence, NASA has successfully put men on the moon, put an operating space station in Earth’s orbit, and used satellites to travel the Solar System to explore space. Without NASA, America’s knowledge of space could have been changed, thus changing the world as it is now.


 * Table of Contents:[[image:134761main_nasa47th_516.jpg width="314" height="384" align="right"]] **
 * 1) The Beginning of NASA:
 * 2) NASA and its Accomplishments:
 * 60's
 * 70's
 * 80’s
 * 90’s
 * NASA’s impact on America and the World
 * 1) Analysis
 * Military
 * Technology Growth
 * Enviroment
 * Economy
 * End of the World?

**Beginning of NASA:**
NASA originated from the Cold War. The United States had a proxy war with mainly the Soviet Union, attempted to further increase weaponry technology and out do the Soviets. With America’s mindset on defeating the Soviets, NASA emerged in 1958 established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act. The U.S wanted to triumph over the soviets, so they would attempt an action that no one has ever done before, that is to put a man on the moon as President John F. Kennedy explains, //…I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish… // (Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs," May 25, 1961)

**NASA Accomplishments:** Besides NASA’s goal of landing a man on the moon, NASA was also directed to research problems in flight, both outside and inside the Earth's atmosphere and to guarantee that United States' space activities were beneficial to mankind. This research evolved throughout the decades and still is currently progressing.

Going back to the 60’s when NASA was established, NASA immediately started working towards its goals, focusing on defeating the Soviets. The first thing NASA worked upon was the task given to them by President John F. Kennedy. NASA constructed what was called Apollo 11, the spaceship that will make its way to the moon to land and put the first man on the moon. July 20, 1969 was the launch date for Apollo 11. Successfully and impressively, Apollo 11 was successful and landed Niel Armstrong safely onto the moon. By placing the American flag onto the moon, NASA had made a spot in history.
 * 60’s: **

<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 14px;">Even though NASA has beaten the Soviets to the moon, NASA continued to strive for further research and understanding. During the 70’s NASA was given the task to create a space shuttle by President Nixon. Not only was the space shuttle worked on, but various satellites were created and blasted into space. On March 2, 1972 Pioneer 10 was launched to Jupiter for further research, Voyager 2 and Voyager 1 were launched in 1972 to explore the outer planets, Apollo 17 was the last of the Apollo’s to travel to the moon, and many other more were created and researched.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">70’s: **

<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 14px;">The task of building the space shuttle back in the 70’s was in its final stages at around the 80’s. The space shuttle was a space craft designed to carry people for various tasks upon orbiting Earth’s orbit and it was during 1981 that the first space shuttle was launched to space. The 80’s was also a decade of ambition. July 20, 1989 President George H. W. Bush requested a demand for constructing a space station as well as sending people back to the Moon and also to explore Mars.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">80’s: **

<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 14px;">As technology progressed, NASA started to further explore the unknown. NASA’s big achievement in the 90’s was sending the Mars Pathfinder Rover to Mars on July 4 1997 for exploring the surface of Mars. NASA also successfully placed the Mars Global Surveyor space probe in Mars orbit to further explore Mars’ features. From the 90’s up to the present, NASA continued to set goals, and achieve them. More and more discoveries had been made by NASA changing our perspective of what we use to think.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">90’s: **

<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 14px;">All these accomplishments that NASA has made are not just accomplishments, but they are also a way of learning. Ever since NASA has breached the barrier between technology and man, we now learned more about the moon, outer space, planets, aerodynamics, and more. NASA was also as source of inspiration and motivation to the world. NASA will strive to learn, research, and explore the unknown and pushed limitations, creating a world with the same kind of attitude.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">NASA's impact: **


 * Analysis: **

Although NASA is its own branch, NASA has connections to several events that over the course of time impacted the lifestyle we live in today. NASA has left its trace in the military, evolved with the sporadic technology growth, was a helping factor in the environmental crisis, created a permanent dent in the economy, and lastly provided the answers to the 2012 Doom's Day phenomenon.
 * NASA and the Military: **

The creation of NASA revolved around an environment of war between mankind. NASA’s beginning was vital to the U.S military and still is today. NASA is a separate branch than the U.S Military, but NASA has contributed to the technology that the Military uses. NASA has launched many satellites into space to orbit Earth. These satellites are not just any ordinary satellites, but they are “spy” satellites. These satellites take pictures of Earth from space and send those pictures into the military’s database. A few of those satellites are named the IKONOS, Quickbird created by the U.S.


 * NASA and the Technology Growth: **

A huge theme of the 1980’s was the use and innovation of technology and NASA fits right into that category. Regardless of NASA’s creation in the 1960’s, NASA continued to expand on its technology throughout the decade. NASA created space shuttles for humans to live in space, made satellites to travel to different planets, and plans for sending humans back to the moon all in the 1980’s. This spontaneous evolution in technology pushed the limits of what abilities NASA can do, and it continued to do so in the 90’s to the present.

media type="youtube" key="qUfVMogIdr8" height="285" width="326" align="right" From the 1940’s up to today, a common theme that was lingering was the Environment. Though the Environment progressed, NASA moved along with it. There is more to NASA than just space travel. NASA is, from the beginning, a scientific organization coming up with solutions to problems that reside in space and on Earth. NASA is actually making significant contributions to the health of Earth and those who inhabit it. In the 1980s, NASA pushed to establish a new environmental effort that became successful in the 1990s with the Earth Observing System (EOS). The EOS kept track of the atmosphere, specifically focusing and studying on the depletion of the ozone layer. The ozone depletion demonstrated the importance of NASA’s ability to observe and study Earth from space. The EOS also connected NASA’s weather and land-resource satellites to NASA’s concern for the global changes affecting Earth and ultimately human beings.
 * NASA and the Environment: **


 * NASA and the Economy: **

"We don't just create new jobs, we create entirely new markets and possibilities for economic growth that didn't previously exist," NASA administrator Michael Griffin stated while giving a speech in Washington. Throughout the years, the economy has been up in the highs and down in the lows. Regardless, NASA has been there to stimulate the economy. NASA has provided 5,300 jobs and $877 million in total annual economic activity according to a new economic benefits study made in 2009. NASA is also working towards educating students interested in science, engineering, and technical professionals. NASA also trains teachers in science, technology, engineering and math to endorse job employment.


 * NASA and the End of the World: **

The huge phenomenon of the 21st Century is that the “beginning of the end” will occur in December 21st, 2012. NASA has indeed have scientists working on the 2012 “catastrophic” event, but however found that media type="youtube" key="YUhEigdFFyI" height="235" width="407" align="right"there is nothing occurring in December, 2012.

NASA has linked the origin of this prediction to a story that stated Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth on May of 2003. That event never occurred so it was pushed back into the date of December 2012, which people linked to the end of the Mayan calendar. This date lands upon the winter solstice. As 2012 approaches, NASA attempts to settle the public with facts assuring that nothing will happen, showing significance in NASA’s 60 years of experience dealing with Space and Aeronautics.

Created by Ton-Hy Pha _
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