The Most Important Events in NASA's History

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration started operations in 1958. The program had an annual budget of $100 million and about 8,000 employees.

The first mission NASA successfully launched was Pioneer I from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its mission was to study the ionizing radiation, cosmic rays, magnetic fields, and micrometeorites near Earth and in lunar orbit.

Pioneer 4 was the first American spacecraft to leave Earth’s orbit and the first lunar flyby mission.

The Mercury crew was announced following a two-month selection process. They were: John H. Glenn, Jr.; Walter M. Schirra, Jr.; Alan B. Shepard, Jr.; M. Scott Carpenter; Gordon Cooper; Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom; and Donald K. Slayton. The mission of the Mercury program was to put a man into orbit and return him safely to Earth.

NASA launched two monkeys, Able and Baker, on a Jupiter rocket on a suborbital flight to test the ability to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Both animals were recovered from the flight, but Able died a short time later.

Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American to fly into space aboard the Freedom 7 Mercury spacecraft. His voyage demonstrated that people can control a vehicle during weightlessness and high G stresses. He reached a top speed of 5,100 miles per hour, and his flight lasted 14.8 minutes.

In a speech before Congress, newly elected President John F. Kennedy committed the United States to landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade and returning him safely to Earth.

NASA successfully tested the Saturn 1 rocket — the test vehicle that paved the way for the development of the Saturn V that carried American astronauts to the moon.

John Glenn became a national hero as the first American to circle the Earth, orbiting the planet three times aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft. In 1998, Glenn would become the oldest person to go into space at age 77.

NASA leaders settled on the method of going to the moon, with advocates for lunar-orbit rendezvous winning out over those favoring Earth-orbit rendezvous. The decision cleared the way for developing the hardware needed to accomplish the president’s goal by his timetable.

Mariner 2 accomplished the first flyby of a planet when it soared past Venus. The spacecraft was also the first to measure the solar wind — charged particles flowing from the Sun.

America put the first Apollo Command Module in orbit. The capsule was launched during an automated test flight atop a Saturn I rocket. The purpose of the test was to show the compatibility of the spacecraft with the launch vehicle for orbital flights.

Edward H. White II performed the first spacewalk by an American during the Gemini IV flight, which was the second piloted Gemini mission. White’s walk lasted 23 minutes. This task needed to be accomplished before making a moon landing.

Eight months after launch, the space probe Mariner 4 traveled to within 6,118 miles of Mars, sending back close-up images of the planet. The spacecraft lasted about three years in solar orbit, and provided studies of the solar wind.

In order for the lunar module to be able to dock with the spacecraft upon returning from the moon, it was important to test the docking maneuver. Commander Neil A. Armstrong and Pilot David Scott docked their Gemini VIII spacecraft with the Agena target vehicle, the first linking of two spacecraft in Earth orbit. The two spacecraft were in the third orbit of the mission, over Mexico’s west coast.

Surveyor 1 landed on the moon, the first American spacecraft to land softly on the lunar surface. It touched down on the Ocean of Storms, considered a possible future lunar landing site for the Apollo mission. The spacecraft transmitted more than 10,000 photographs from the surface. The mission was deemed a complete success and demonstrated the effectiveness of the technology critical to the success of future lunar missions.

During a simulation aboard the Apollo spacecraft on the launchpad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a flash fire ignited in the pure oxygen atmosphere of the capsule, killing astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. It was the first fatal accident directly attributed to the U.S. space program, and it led to a redesign of the spacecraft. The Apollo mission of sending astronauts to the moon was resumed in October 1968.

The crew of Apollo 8 — Frank Borman, James Lovell Jr., and William Anders — were the first people to leave Earth’s orbit, reach the moon, orbit it, and return safely to Earth. The photos they took of the moon and the data they gathered were critical in preparing the United States for the moon landing the following year.

Neil A. Armstrong became the first person to set foot on another world on July 20, 1969. Buzz Aldrin joined him on the lunar surface a few minutes later. The two astronauts left behind scientific instruments, an American flag, and a plaque with the inscription: “Here Men From Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in Peace For All Mankind.” Four days later, they returned to Earth, fulfilling President Kennedy’s pledge of landing men on the moon and returning them safely to Earth before the end of the decade.

NASA averted disaster on the Apollo 13 mission, rescuing astronauts Fred Haise, Jack Swigert, and Jim Lovell after a life-threatening accident. About 56 hours into the flight and before the astronauts landed on the moon, an oxygen tank ruptured and damaged some of the power, electrical, and life support systems. NASA got the astronauts safely home after discovering the Aquarius lunar module — a self-contained spacecraft not damaged by the accident — could provide life support for the return trip.

Apollo 15 was the first mission to include the lunar rover, which extended the range the astronauts could reach on the moon. Moonwalkers David Scott and James Irwin brought back 173 pounds of moon rocks.

Mariner 9 made history by becoming the first human-made object to orbit another planet when it circled Mars.

NASA launched the Pioneer spacecrafts beginning in 1972 to prepare for possible missions to the four large planets in the solar system — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pioneer 10 was launched in 1972 and in 1973, NASA put Pioneer 11 into space.

Landsat 1, launched in 1972, was a different mission for NASA. Originally called the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS), Landsat was an Earth resource mapping mission that provided data on vegetation, insect infestations, crop growth, and other land uses. Subsequent Landsat vehicles were launched in 1975 and 1978.

Skylab, the first American space station and laboratory, was launched into space on May 14, 1973. It orbited Earth for four years. Skylab had onboard a solar observatory, a multiple docking adapter, an airlock module with spacewalk hatches, and the orbital workshop.

Pioneer 10 made the first flyby of Jupiter in late 1973. The spacecraft was originally designed for a 21-month mission to fly by Jupiter. Instead, the mission lasted more than 30 years.

At the height of the Cold War in the mid-1970s, the Soviet Union and the United States agreed to collaborate on a joint venture in space. The mission was intended to assess the compatibility of rendezvous and docking systems for American and Soviet spacecraft, as well as the feasibility of international space rescue and future joint missions.

The Viking 1 was the first U.S. spacecraft to successfully land on Mars, after it was launched a year earlier. Even though the main mission of the project ended on Nov. 15, 1976, the spacecraft continued to transmit to Earth for six years after first touching down on Mars.

In the late 1960s, NASA scientists discovered that every 175 years, the Earth and the large planets in the solar system line up on one side of the Sun. This configuration would allow for a close observation of all the planets in the outer solar system in a single flight. With that in mind, NASA launched two spacecraft: Voyager 2 on Aug. 20, 1977, and Voyager 1, on a faster, shorter trajectory, on Sept. 5, 1977. The launch window to observe the alignment was between 1976 and 1980.

Space Shuttle Columbia, piloted by astronauts John W. Young and Robert L. Crippin, took off for the first time. Columbia became the first airplane-like craft to land after orbiting Earth. The flight lasted about two days and six hours.

Pioneer 10 flew past our solar system. The spacecraft sent its last signal to Earth in January 2003, when it was 7.6 billion miles away.

Sally K. Ride became the first American woman in space as one of three mission specialists on Space Shuttle Challenger.

The Space Shuttle Challenger carried the first African American astronaut, Guion S. Bluford, into space as a mission specialist.

After a prolonged internal debate about the viability of the space station program, President Ronald Reagan announced during his State of the Union address that the United States would construct a space station within a decade.

Voyager 2 flew by Uranus on Jan. 24, 1986 and past Neptune on Aug. 25, 1989. Voyager is the only spacecraft to study the four giant planets of the solar system up close.

During a launch viewed by millions of people around the world, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, killing all seven members of its crew — Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, Gregory B. Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. The explosion occurred 73 seconds into the flight because of a leak in one of the rocket boosters that ignited the main liquid fuel tank. Following the tragedy, the shuttle program was suspended until September 1988.

The shuttle program resumed, with the flight of Discovery, the 26th shuttle flight.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched from the space shuttle in 1990 to a mission that lasts till today. After its launch, it was discovered that the telescope had a defect narrower than the width of a human hair in one of its mirrors. The flaw, which prevented the telescope from properly focusing and sending clear images, was fixed later by astronauts in a spacewalk. Hubble has made significant discoveries, including images providing evidence of what could be an enormous black hole.

The flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery was noteworthy because it was the first shuttle piloted by a woman, Eileen M. Collins.

NASA scientists announced that they had discovered evidence, though not conclusive, that microscopic life may have once existed on Mars.

NASA’s Galileo probe produced data from Jupiter that indicated the giant planet’s moon Europa may contain “warm ice” or possibly liquid water, which are key to sustaining life. NASA officials emphasized that the photos do not conclusively prove this.

The Pathfinder probe landed on Mars by employing a parachute to decelerate its descent and a system of airbags to absorb the impact of landing. The probe carried a 23-pound robotic rover that recorded weather patterns and the chemical composition of rocks in the floodplain. The vehicle captured more data on the atmosphere, weather, and geology than scientists had expected.

Astronomers spotted what was believed to be the first planet outside the solar system through the Hubble Space Telescope. The object was 450 light years from Earth.

John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, also became the oldest person to go into space, at age 77.

The building of the International Space Station began in 1998 when the U.S.-constructed Unity node and the Russian-built Zarya — the Russian word for sunrise — module joined in orbit.

Humankind began permanent presence in space with the crew of Bill Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko, and Sergei Krikalev aboard the International Space Station.

Another shuttle tragedy occurred in 2003, when the Columbia was destroyed on re-entry, killing all seven crew members — David M. Brown, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, Rick D. Husband, Laurel B. Clark, and Ilan Ramon. NASA suspended shuttle missions for more than two years as it probed the disaster.

Voyager 1, launched on Sept. 5, 1977, when Jimmy Carter was president, became the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space.

Katherine Johnson, one of the African American women portrayed in the film “Hidden Figures,” received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. Johnson and other female “computers” were recognized for contributing to the success of the U.S. space program in the 1960s.