As of today, the 1st of October 2018, NASA has turned 60. It was created as a new agency based on its precursor NACA, started in 1915. The cold war between the USA and the Soviet Union created a space race the late 1950’s. From 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was experimenting with rocket planes. One of the famous ones was the Bell X-1 that took Chuck Yeager past the speed of sound (and was the first to do so). They were also the team behind the running of the X-15 rocket plane that Neil Armstrong famously flew. In the early 1950’s there was a call to look into launching artificial satellites towards the end of the decade, mainly driven by the International Geophysical Year which was 1957/58.
An effort towards this by the USA started with Project Vanguard, led by the
United States Naval Research Laboratory, which ended in catastrophic failure. This was the perceived state of the US side of the space race at the time. On October 4th, 1957 Sputnik 1 launched and instantly grabbed the attention of the United States public. The perceived threat to national security was known as the Sputnik crisis, and US congress urged immediate action. President Dwight D. Eisenhower with his advisers worked on immediate measures to catch up. It eventually led to an agreement to create a new federal agency based on the activity of NACA. The agency would conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was also created to develop space technology for the military applications.
Between 1957 and 1958 NACA began studying what a new non-military space agency would be, and what it would do. On January 12th, 1958 NACA convened a “special committee on space technology” headed by Guyford Stever (director of the national science foundation). The committee had consultation from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency headed by the famous Werner Von Braun, the soon to be architect of the Saturn V. On January 14th 1958, the NACA director Hugh Dryden published “A National Research Program for Space Technology” that stated:
It is of great urgency and importance to our country both from consideration of our prestige as a nation as well as military necessity that this challenge [Sputnik] be met by an energetic program of research and development for the conquest of space… It is accordingly proposed that the scientific research be the responsibility of a national civilian agency… NACA is capable, by rapid extension and expansion of its effort, of providing leadership in space technology
On January 31st 1958, Explorer 1 was launched. Officially names Satellite 1958 Alpha, it was the first satellite of the United States. Talked about in a recent post, the payload consisted of the Iowa Cosmic Ray Instrument without a tape recorder (there was not enough time to install it). A big turning point in the US side of the space race, it gave civilian space activities a chance in the spotlight to allow for more funding.
In April 1958, Eisenhower delivered to the U.S. Congress an address to support the formation of a civilian space agency. He then submitted a bill to create the “National Aeronautical and Space Agency”. Somewhat reworked the bill was passed as the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 on July 16th. Two days later Von Braun’s Working group submitted a report criticizing the duplication of efforts between departments on space related programs in the US government. On July 29th the bill was signed by Eisenhower and NASA was formed. It began operations on October 1st 1958. NASA absorbed NACA in its entirety, including its 8,000 employees, annual budget of $100 million, and the research labs under its jurisdiction. The three main labs were Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory. It also inherited two small test facilities. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency were transferred to NASA, including Werner Von Brauns Working Group. Elements of the Naval Research Laboratory that failed to launch project Vanguard were also transferred to NASA. In December of that year NASA gained control Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It is important to remember that NASA was based upon the success of the rocket scientist Rober Goddard, who inspired Werner Von Braun and other German Rocket scientists brought over by project paperclip. There was also huge influences from the research conducted by ARPA and US Air Force research programs.
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