NASA History Overview:

Fifty years after the creation of NASA, our goal is no longer just a destination to reach. Our goal is the
capacity for people to work and learn and operate and live safely beyond the Earth for extended periods
of time, ultimately in ways that are more sustainable and even indefinite. And in fulfilling this task, we will
not only extend humanity’s reach in space -- we will strengthen America’s leadership here on Earth.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is responsible for unique scientific and
technological achievements in human spaceflight, aeronautics, space science, and space applications that
have had widespread impacts on our nation and the world. Forged in response to early Soviet space
achievements, NASA was built on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and other
government organizations, as the locus of U.S. civil aerospace research and development.

When NASA opened for business on October 1, 1958, it accelerated the work already started on human
and robotic spaceflight. NASA's first high profile program was Project Mercury, an effort to learn if humans
could survive in space. This was followed by Project Gemini, which used spacecraft built for two astronauts
to perfect the capabilities needed for the national objective of a human trip to the Moon by the end of the
1960s. Project Apollo achieved that objective in July 1969 with the Apollo 11 mission and expanded on it
with five more successful lunar landing missions through 1972. After the Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz Test
Projects of the mid-1970s, NASA's human spaceflight efforts again resumed in 1981, with the Space Shuttle
program that continued for 30 years. The Shuttle was not only a breakthrough technology, but was
essential to our next major step in space, the construction of the International Space Station.

Over the last 60 years NASA has continued to push the boundaries with cutting edge aeronautics research
that has dramatically changed the way we build and fly airplanes. NASA has also completed the
reconnaissance of our solar system, with intense investigation of all the planets. Using orbital spacecraft
like the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA has also dramatically changed our understanding of the universe
around us, as well as our own planet. NASA’s early work on launch vehicles, communication satellites, and
weather satellites has fundamentally changed daily life and created whole new industries. As a catalyst for
international cooperation, NASA has also changed how and why humanity conducts space exploration. Now,
NASA is preparing to take humankind farther than ever before, as it helps to foster a robust commercial
space economy near Earth, and pioneers further human and robotic exploration as we venture into deep
space.

The NASA History Office Program publishes a quarterly newsletter, as well as an array of books (print
and digital), hosts social media, provides fellowships, and runs the Historical Reference Collection (our
version of an archive) to assist the public in finding more information on aeronautical and space history. In
addition, the staff produces the Aeronautics and Space Report of the President. The National Aeronautics
and Space Act of 1958 directs NASA to produce an annual report that includes a “comprehensive description
of the programmed activities and the accomplishments of all agencies of the United States in the field of
aeronautics and space activities" during the preceding year.

Our staff also assists the public, media, researchers, NASA employees and Congressional staff to find
resources within and outside the NASA History Office's Historical Reference Collection.
About NASA:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is America’s civil space program and the global leader
in space exploration. The agency has a diverse workforce of just under 18,000 civil servants, and works
with many more U.S. contractors, academia, and international and commercial partners to explore,
discover, and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity. With an annual budget of $23.2 billion in
Fiscal Year 2021, which is less than 0.5% of the overall U.S. federal budget, NASA supports more than
312,000 jobs across the United States, generating more than $64.3 billion in total economic output (Fiscal
Year 2019).

At its 20 centers and facilities across the country – and the only National Laboratory in space – NASA
studies Earth, including its climate, our Sun, and our solar system and beyond. We conduct research,
testing, and development to advance aeronautics, including electric propulsion and supersonic flight. We
develop and fund space technologies that will enable future exploration and benefit life on Earth.

NASA also leads a Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes working with U.S. industry,
international partners, and academia to develop new technology, and send science research and soon
humans to explore the Moon on Artemis missions that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red
Planet. In addition to those major missions, the agency shares what it learns so that its information can
make life better for people worldwide. For example, companies use NASA discoveries and technologies to
create new products for the public. To ensure future success for the agency and the nation, NASA also
supports education efforts in STEM with an emphasis on increasing diversity in our future workforce.

NASA Strategic Plan Objective:

Expand human presence into the solar system and to the surface of Mars to advance exploration, science,
innovation, benefits to humanity, and international collaboration

Strategic Knowledge Gaps

• A Strategic Knowledge Gap (SKG) is an unknown or incomplete data set that contributes risk or
cost to future human missions

Apollo example: footpads oversized due to poor knowledge of lunar soil bearing strength

• SKGs are not unique to human exploration; all NASA missions are designed based upon what is
known and what is not.

• Science measurements are the greatest source of strategic Knowledge that has benefitted future
human exploration.
NASA Advanced Exploration Systems Strategy:

• Advanced development of exploration systems to reduce risk, lower lifecycle cost, and validate
operational concepts for future human missions beyond Earth orbit.

• Demonstrate prototype systems in ground test beds, field tests, underwater tests, and International
Space Station flight experiments.

• Use and pioneer innovative approaches and public-private partnerships for affordable rapid systems
development and provide hands-on experience for the NASA workforce.

• Maintain critical competencies at the NASA Centers and provide NASA personnel with opportunities
to learn new and transform skills.

• Infuse new technologies developed by Space Technology Mission Directorate / Exploration

• Support robotic missions of opportunity to characterize potential destinations for human

NASA’s Business Services Assessment (BSA) evaluated the health of mission support operations and
enacted changes to optimize processes and practices

The Mission Support Future Architecture Program (MAP) was established to implement a phased plan
to transform all mission support functional areas from their current state to an enterprise architecture.

Strategic
Workforce
Planning

Business
Services Mission
Assessment Support
Architecture
(MAP)
NASA’s Partnership Portfolio:

The U.S. private sector is NASA’s largest partner segment by # of agreements, accounting for more than
a third of NASA’s 2,866 active agreements.

Number of Active Agreements and % of Total by Partner Segment

International
U.S. Federal
Partners
Agencies
681 (24%)
755 (26%)

U.S. State
& Local
Govt.
84 (3%)

U.S.
Academic &
U.S. Private Education
Sector 337 (12%)
1,009 (35%)