15 Historic Moment NASA During 55 Years

Mas Aal - The success of the Soviet Union (now Russia) in the first satellite into orbit, was lashing the United States (U.S.) to develop a spacecraft. At that time, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower established a national agency to compete with rivals during the Cold War enveloped both.

Apparently, it was a forerunner to the establishment of the U.S. space agency named the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958. The objective of establishing NASA by Eisenhower to replace its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).

Right on Monday, July 29, NASA officially turned the 55th year. As a space agency that has been in existence for more than half a century, certainly has a lot of moments throughout its history. The following 15 iconic moments in the piece of NASA, as quoted from Rian, Tuesday (07/30/2013):

1. After the Russians launched the first satellite called Sputnik (in Russian means 'traveling companion'), NASA encouraged to create their own design. After three months of development, finally Explorer 1 diluncuncurkan to start circling the Earth 12 times per day for a dozen years.

2. NASA together with the Air Force and the U.S. Navy launched the X-15 rocket plane broke the speed and altitude records of flights taken between 1959 and 1968. Among the pilots involved, one of which is known to Neil Armstrong.

3. Chimpanzee named Ham became the first early human to fly into space. On January 1961, the monkey managed to return safely to Earth. Where, his ship landed in the Atlantic Ocean.

4. Less than a month after the original Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel into space in April 1961, astronauts from the U.S. named Alan Shepard rolled with rockets during the 15-minute trip into space.

5. In his speech to the U.S. Congress on May 25, 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces full support to land astronauts to the Moon and return to Earth safely.

6. In February 1962, astronaut Glenn jhon off into space and became the first American to successfully orbiting the Earth. Having circled the Earth three times, Glenn capsule landed in the Atlantic Ocean. It took 21 minutes before he recovered after the landing.

7. In 1964, the Mariner 4 spacecraft into the fleet managed to capture images of Mars in close up for the first time. The photographs showed an arid crater surface. This indicates no signs of life on the red planet.

8. To fulfill President Kennedy's commitment to land on the Moon, NASA's space program through the Apollo 11 astronauts flew two Armastrong that Neil and Buzz Aldrin on July 21, 1969. Shuttle launch was broadcast on television for viewers around the world witnessed the historic event.

9. In July 1975, the project conducted the first space flight to the US-Soviet. This flight is known as the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) is meant to be a symbol of peace the two superpowers. The astronauts involved in the flight are Russian astronaut Alexei Leonov, and U.S. astronauts Deke Slayton.

10. In July 1976, the Viking 1 spacecraft NASA captures first image of Mars. The image shows the surface of the red planet.

11. In 1983, astronaut Sally became the first American woman who successfully flew into space with the space shuttle Challenger.

12. Aircraft Challenger exploded 73 seconds after takeoff in January 1986, killing all its crew of seven. This tragedy shook NASA and the U.S. public.

13. The Hubble Space Telescope using pesawar orbiting NASA space shuttle in 1990. The goal, to capture high resolution images in space.

14. Mars Pathfinder was launched in 1996 and successfully landed on Mars in 1997 after traveling as far as 309 million miles. After a year of traveling, he returned with thousands of photos on the situation at the red planet. This mission is not manned and to pave the way for research projects next Mars.

15. NASA launched the Curiosity robot to continue the success of Pathfinder. Robotic rovers landed on Mars in August 2012. In addition to capturing high-resolution images on the red planet, Curiosity also sent to investigate the climate and geology as well as find out whether there was a previous life on the planet. Up to now, six-wheeled robot is still on Mars.

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