NASA Fast Facts
There are 10 major NASA facilities, including the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Timeline
October 1, 1958 – The official start of NASA.
October 7, 1958 – NASA announces Project Mercury. The Mercury project’s objectives are to place a human spacecraft into orbital flight around Earth, observe human performance in such conditions and recover the human and the spacecraft safely.
April 9, 1959 – The Mercury Seven are introduced as the first US astronauts: Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Walter M. Schirra Jr., Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Donald K. “Deke” Slayton.
NASA Fast Facts
There are 10 major NASA facilities, including the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Timeline
October 1, 1958 – The official start of NASA.
October 7, 1958 – NASA announces Project Mercury. The Mercury project’s objectives are to place a human spacecraft into orbital flight around Earth, observe human performance in such conditions and recover the human and the spacecraft safely.
April 9, 1959 – The Mercury Seven are introduced as the first US astronauts: Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Walter M. Schirra Jr., Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Donald K. “Deke” Slayton.
NASA Fast Facts
elisfkc2 / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
There are 10 major NASA facilities, including the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Timeline
October 1, 1958 – The official start of NASA.
October 7, 1958 – NASA announces Project Mercury. The Mercury project’s objectives are to place a human spacecraft into orbital flight around Earth, observe human performance in such conditions and recover the human and the spacecraft safely.
April 9, 1959 – The Mercury Seven are introduced as the first US astronauts: Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Walter M. Schirra Jr., Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Donald K. “Deke” Slayton.
If NASA's Perseverance rover lands safely on Mars, it will become the first space mission in nearly 45 years to directly search for signs of microbial life.