Curated category
NASA programs
- Apollo programIn early 1960, NASA manager Abe Silverstein named the new spacecraft program Apollo after the Greek god who rode his chariot across the Sun.
- Voyager programGary Flandro, an aerospace engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, conceptualized a Planetary Grand Tour in 1964. This ambitious plan relied on a rare…
- Viking programThe Viking program began its life in 1968 when NASA Langley Research Center took charge of the effort. This initiative grew from an earlier, even more…
- Mars Exploration RoverNASA launched the Spirit rover on the 10th of June 2003. The Opportunity rover followed shortly after on the 7th of July 2003.
- Pioneer programStephen A. Saliga sat in a briefing room at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base during the late 1950s. He served as chief designer for Air Force exhibits within…
- Ranger programThe Ranger program began in 1959 as a series of uncrewed space missions by the United States. Its goal was to obtain the first close-up images of the lunar…
- Space Launch SystemThe Space Launch System emerged from a specific legal requirement in 2010. Congress passed the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, Public Law 111, 267, which…
- Space Shuttle programPresident Richard Nixon met with NASA Administrator James Fletcher in January 1972 to discuss the future of American spaceflight.
- NERVAIn 1946, Stan Ulam and C. J. Everett wrote a paper considering the use of atomic bombs as rocket propulsion at Los Alamos Laboratory.
- Artemis programOn the 11th of December 2017, President Donald Trump signed Space Policy Directive-1. This executive order officially re-established the national space…
- Commercial Lunar Payload ServicesIn April of 2018, NASA officials made a decision that would reshape lunar exploration. They cancelled the Resource Prospector rover concept study and…
- Lunar GatewayThe Lunar Gateway began as a concept called the Deep Space Habitat in 2012. NASA released this proposal to study requirements for deep space habitats under…
- Spacecraft propulsionA remote camera captures a close-up view of an RS-25 during a test firing at the John C. Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi.
- Pegasus (satellite)The Pegasus Project began on the 16th of February 1965 when a NASA Saturn I rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral. This launch marked the first time three…
- Boilerplate (spaceflight)A boilerplate spacecraft is a nonfunctional craft or payload that serves as a mass simulator for testing launch vehicle configurations.