NASA is the agency of the U.S. government, established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 to plan, direct, and conduct all U.S. aeronautical and space activities, except those that are primarily military. NASA's signature achievement was the Apollo program of the 1960s, which, in accordance with goals outlined in May 1961 by U.S. President John F. Kennedy, succeeded in landing astronauts on the moon and returning them safely to earth.
The administrator of NASA is a civilian appointed by the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate. NASA arranges for participation by the scientific community in planning scientific measurements and observations to be made through use of aeronautical and space vehicles, and provides for dissemination of information concerning results. Under the guidance of the president, NASA participates in the development of programs of international cooperation in space activities.
NASA's field installations include the Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Md.; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, operated under contract by the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena; the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Tex., which manages the space shuttle program; the John F. Kennedy Space Center, at Cape Canaveral, Fla., which is responsible for launch and recovery operations; and the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Ala., which oversees launch vehicle development, microgravity research, and optics manufacturing technology.
In 1998 NASA established the Astrobiology Institute at its Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The institute's purpose is to enhance research for new instruments and space probes to search for life in the solar system and beyond (see Exobiology). It is a consortium of academic institutions, including the University of California at Los Angeles, Harvard University, and the University of Colorado, as well as the private sector and several NASA field centers.
With the advent of the space shuttle, NASA became more frequently involved in military activities despite its original intent as a civilian agency. Because of the long delay caused by the 1986 Challenger disaster, however, the military started expanding its own fleet of booster rockets. In 1996, NASA announced a $7-billion, 6-year contract under which the agency would gradually turn over routine operation of the shuttle program to private industry. The Columbia disaster in early 2003 brought a halt to the space shuttle program, until key proposals made by the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board could be implemented. The 2003 disaster also prompted calls for NASA to reexamine whether, in a time of budgetary constraint, its commitment to the space shuttle and the International Space Station represented the most cost-effective approach to space research. In a speech in January 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush laid out a revised set of long-term goals for the agency, including the establishment of a human colony on the moon by 2020 that could serve as a launching point for a piloted expedition to Mars.
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