Short answers, pulled from the story.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration began operations on the 1st of October 1958. This agency emerged from a geopolitical crisis after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 in 1957 which triggered a frantic response from Washington.
Alan Shepard became the first American to enter space on the 5th of May 1961 during a suborbital flight aboard Freedom 7. His mission occurred less than a month after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed a full orbital flight.
NASA sent Mariner probes to Venus Mars and Mercury during the 1960s while Viking landers touched down on Mars in 1976. The agency later deployed Spirit Opportunity Curiosity and Perseverance rovers with Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 becoming the first objects to leave the Solar System after launching in 1977.
The Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990 from Discovery during STS-31 despite having a major mirror defect that threatened its mission. Five servicing missions by Space Shuttle crews corrected the flaw allowing it to view galaxies up to 15 billion light years away.
NASA signed its first Commercial Resupply Services contracts in 2008 awarding $1.6 billion to SpaceX and $1.9 billion to Orbital Sciences. SpaceX flew its first operational resupply mission CRS-1 in 2012 delivering cargo to the International Space Station.
Artemis II plans to launch no later than April 2026 placing four astronauts into lunar flyby for ten days. Artemis III aims to conduct the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 scheduled for mid-2027 at the lunar south pole region.