Short answers, pulled from the story.
NASA was established on the 29th of July 1958, when President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, and began operations on the 1st of October 1958. It was created to give the United States a civilian-led space program distinct from military operations, following the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik 1 and the shock of falling behind in the Space Race.
Alan Shepard became the first American to enter space on the 5th of May 1961, performing a suborbital flight aboard the Freedom 7. His flight came 23 days after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed a full orbital spaceflight, making Gagarin the first human in space.
Neil Armstrong said "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" when he became the first human to step on the Moon's surface during the Apollo 11 mission. Apollo 11 was commanded by Armstrong, with astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins also on the crew.
For fiscal year 2026, NASA was authorized a budget of $24.4 billion. The agency employs approximately 18,400 civil servants and has been led since December 2025 by administrator Jared Isaacman.
Artemis is NASA's crewed lunar exploration program, active since 2017, aimed at returning humans to the Moon and establishing a sustainable presence there. Artemis II placed four astronauts on a lunar flyby in April 2026. The first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 was pushed to Artemis IV, planned for early 2028, after the Artemis III mission was changed in February 2026 to a low Earth orbit docking test.
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test, launched in November 2021, struck the asteroid Dimorphos on the 26th of September 2022. NASA confirmed the impact shortened Dimorphos's orbital period around the asteroid Didymos by about 32 minutes, surpassing the pre-defined success threshold of 73 seconds and demonstrating that a spacecraft impact can alter an asteroid's trajectory.