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What is NASA
2022-02-26 08:41:16

What is NASA

Introduction

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, commonly known as NASA, is an independent agency working in Space Exploration and developing advanced technologies for the aviation industry.

Ever since it was established, it has been a synonym for creativity and fascinating Technologies across the globe. The success of NASA can easily be understood by its involvement in almost all of the best space technologies developed and the discoveries made in the last few decades. NASA has made very notable developments, especially in the field of Aeronautics and Modern transportation systems. Now and then, we hear about some latest discoveries made by NASA in different fields. So, in this article, we will be learning about NASA in detail.


What is NASA?

NASA is an acronym used for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It is a USA (United States of America) based organization that works in research and development. It has made significant progress through its space exploration programs and has helped solve some of the greatest mysteries of the universe and our solar system. NASA performs all of its research and development work through multiple research facilities situated in the United States and other countries like Australia and Spain.

The headquarter of NASA is situated in the US Capital of Washington, DC. The center at Washington acts as a leader for all other facilities and guides their research and development work.

Currently, there are about 155 field centers of NASA located in the USA only. All these centers are assigned different roles and research activities based on their location, infrastructure, and other available resources.

These fields centers come under the leadership of 10 big NASA research facilities. NASA has also actively contributed to the development and launch of space satellites. These satellites perform multiple tasks such as data collection, broadcasting satellites, satellites used in communication, and collecting research data from space. NASA follows the slogan of “For the benefit of all”,i.e., it does not work only for a single state or country; it works for the collective good of all the people on earth.

History of NASA

After the second world war ended in 1945, scientists made many discoveries in Aeronautics and Space Technology in the next few years. Space Agency of the Soviet Union made the first big progress in this field. In the year 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first satellite Sputnik 1. After this, Congress of the USA also decided to establish their space research agency. Eventually, NASA( National Aeronautics and Space Agency) was established in the year 1958. It was established to create a federal agency working in the field of Space Technology. Also, Congress mentioned in the National Aeronautics and Space Act that NASA would be completely independent of the US military division. Also, Congress mentioned that NASA would perform all non-military research activities.

So, after all these events, NASA was finally established and became operational from the year 1958.

Funding of NASA

The success of NASA has not been at a low price. Since its establishment, NASA has been provided with large funding for its operations. NASA is a federal agency of the US government and therefore receives most of its funding from the US Federal Budget of US Congress. NASA was given a budget of around $89 million in the year 1958. Since then, there has been a constant increase in the budget provided to NASA every year. In 2020, NASA was allocated a budget of $22.6 billion, the largest budget for a Space Agency globally. So, a total budget of $650 billion has been given to NASA since 1968.

Breakthrough Missions of NASA

Over the years, NASA has been a part of some of the world’s most advanced and technically difficult space research and aviation projects. But even for the standards of NASA, some missions helped NASA establish itself as the best space research agency in the world. Following are some of the best space programs by NASA since 1958.

1) X-Plane Program

X-plane program is not technically a space program. In the initial years of NASA, this program focused on building high-speed aircraft carriers using the technology of rocket propulsion. The first plane of the series, Bell X-1 was the first aircraft that successfully broke the sound barrier,i.e., the aircraft traveled faster than the speed of sound. After this, NASA created many such aircraft under the X-Plane program of NASA.

2) The Apollo Mission

This program became one of the milestone missions not only in the history of NASA but for the history of humankind. Under this program, astronauts were successfully launched using the Shuttle, started research work in the decade of its foundation. The research work finally helped NASA to launch the best mission to date.

The first space mission launched the Shuttle along with astronauts and landed them on the Moon. It is one of the biggest achievements in the field space launch missions to date. On July 20, 1969, a rocket carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins successfully landed these astronauts on the Moon. Neil Armstrong became the first man ever to set foot on the surface of the Moon. NASA made a total of six flights under the Apollo Mission, carrying 12 astronauts to the surface of the Moon. This mission helped NASA to get funds for its future programs.

3) International Space Station (ISS)

International Space Station is an extraordinary achievement of humans in space technologies. International Space Station is an artificial space station, just like a train station for trains, but instead of Trains, it is used to park Space Shuttle. It is located in the lower earth orbit of space. The main purpose of creating such a technological marvel was to allow astronauts to stay in space for long periods and conduct research.

This project represents the perfect example of the power of global cooperation. ISS was built in the year 1998 with the cooperation of

Roscosmos (Russian Space Agency), JAXA( Japanese Space Agency), ESA (Europian Space Agency), and CSA(Canadian Space Agency), led by NASA. All the space agencies have ownership of this project, and they use ISS according to their requirements based on inter-agency agreements. ISS can accommodate 7 people, and all the required facilities are already available on the ISS.

4) Chandra X-Ray Observatory

Apart from space missions, NASA has also developed many advanced research facilities for space research. One of the biggest successes is the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. It was launched from Space Shuttle Columbia in the year 1999. It is an advanced telescope, and it was 100 times better than any other X-Ray telescope available at the time. This observatory has helped make some of the greatest discoveries in the field of X-Ray astronomy in the last 2 decades.

5) Hubble Space Telescope

It is one of the most famous telescopes across the globe. It has been operational for the last 31 years. Hubble is also a high-resolution telescope launched in 1990 to improve our understanding of the other parts of our solar system. It has successfully performed all of its functions effectively and is still working. Hubble telescope takes its name from the American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Hubble telescope played an instrumental role in determining the rate of expansion of the universe and many other astronomical discoveries. This telescope is estimated to be operational for the next 15-20 years more. This type of telescope is serviced and provided with new instruments after a regular time interval. These activities are a part of the maintenance activities to ensure the proper working of the telescope.

Ongoing NASA programs

  1. Project Earth to Mars: NASA was the first space agency to start research for the Mars landing of humans. This program was started back in 2010 and continued till 2017. The Orion spacecraft has been developed as a part of this project to carry astronauts from Earth to Mars.
  1. Project Artemis: This program is like an advancement to Apollo Mission which successfully landed astronauts on the Moon. Under this project, NASA is working with private space research companies and other national space agencies. The mission of this project is to successfully perform the astronaut landing in the lunar south pole area of the Moon. The deadline for this project is 2024, and its success will help establish the long presence of humans on the Moon.
  1. Communication Satellites: NASA has also advanced in the field of space research over time. Currently, many satellites are being launched as a part of a project to establish proper communication between earth and other planets of our solar system.

Other Space Agencies

NASA has achieved great success since its establishment. But many other countries also have the

  1. ROSCOSMOS

This is the state-established space agency of Russia. ROSCOSMOS was the first space agency in the world to launch an artificial satellite, and the satellite was called Sputnik. The agency also played a key role in establishing International Space Station(ISS) along with NASA and space agencies of other countries. It contributed to the modules Zarya and Zvezda for the International Space Station.

  1. ISRO

India started quite late in the space research programs. But in the last two decades, it has been established in the first row of the space agencies in the world. ISRO stands “Indian Space Research Organisation”. It is a completely Government owned organization that is under the Department of Space. Therefore, the Department of Space puts ISRO under the direct control of the Prime Minister of India. Indian scientists laid the foundation for ISRO in the 1950s. But ISRO got real success after the arrival of PSLV. Under, this program ISRO launched more than 50 artificial satellites in outer space. The foundation of the Indian Space Programme is mainly credited to the extraordinary vision of Vikram Sarabhai. In recent years, some of the most successful missions of ISRO include Chandrayaan-I, Chandrayaan-II, and Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM). MOM successfully installed a rover on the surface of Mars at the cost of just $74 million. In the future, ISRO has planned to set up its space station, which will be separate from ISS(International Space Station) and will accommodate 3 people for 15-20 days in the space. ISRO has created a global image of launching space programs at a very low cost. Low-cost service has provided ISRO with many commercial contracts from other space agencies and private companies. These contacts helped ISRO with the necessary funds to start new space programs.

  1. ESA

ESA stands for “European Space Agency”. ESA is a multinational cooperated space agency set up by the European countries. ESA mainly cooperates with other space agencies like NASA, JAXA, ISRO, ROSCOSMOS, and others. It is one of the member agencies responsible for constructing and maintaining ISS(International Space Station). Major contributors to ESA are France, Italy, Spain, the UK, Netherlands, Norway, etc.

  1. CNSA

CNSA is the “China National Space Administration”. It is Government operated space agency in China. CNSA was founded in 1993 to carry out space research for the Chinese Government. The headquarters of CNSA is located in Beijing. Qian Xuesen has been the central figure in the Chinese space program.

  1. JAXA

“Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency”, commonly known as JAXA, is the national space agency of Japan. JAXA was formed in the year 2003. Since then, JAXA has got the most success in the field of climate observation.