History+of+the+space+program+in+America+-+p2

Tony

NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations was established on July 29,1959, because President Eisenhower and the US Congress thought America's security looked low to the world. When NASA officially opened on October 1,1958 only 80 people worked there.

NASA was in a space race with Russia. They started with the Mercury Program to figure out if people could survive in space. On May 5,1961, Alan Shepard became the first man in space when he flew Freedom 7 on a 15 minute flight. John Glenn flew around the Earth on February 20, 1962 in Friendship 7. The Mercury Program proved that people could survive on space flights.

Next, NASA wanted to have people on the moon and then come back to Earth. Six different Apollo flights landed on the moon and safely came back to Earth. The astronauts collected pieces of the moon and other information. Skylab was the first US Space Station. Astronauts visited the space station three times.

Currently, NASA uses shuttles to orbit the Earth and visit the Space Station. The first shuttle, Columbia, was on April 12, 1981. The shuttles are different because they can be reused. NASA is looking into the future to see what is the next vehicle to take us to the moon.

The US entered space study to beat the Russians in 1958. In an unusual twist, the US and Russia joined together in 1995, to launch a joint space station called Mir.