Planetary Wonderings Did you see NASA’s 50th anniversary mentioned in the news lately? Google even had a specially dedicated banner for it. So, when is or was NASA’s anniversary? It seems that most media has placed the anniversary on July 29 since that was the day in 1958 that President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into existence. This act led to the formation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Prior to this, space-related activities were handled by multiple, mostly military, agencies. Still, some would argue for October 1 as the true anniversary because it was on that date that NASA actually began operations. The brevity of this article could never due proper justice to a history of NASA, so I thought I would briefly highlight some of the accomplishments made during NASA’s first year.
28 May 1959 Resource of the Month:
Space History — The First 50 Years of Space:
Every Single Launch... Ever! This
interactive timeline details 6038 liftoffs since Sputnik. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4221976.html
(Click
on Space The First 50 Years
Timeline)
This does
take quite some time to download for those on dialup.
Activity of the Month: Visit your local NASA facility. In
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(columns from Jan. 2007 to the present). Remember to keep looking up! Sources (not mentioned in article): http://www.nasa.gov/50th/timeline.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_in_space |