Nasa which department

The scientists usually don't like that idea much because it would completely militarize the manned space program almost certainly never to return , and most of the "pure-science" programs run by NASA do not have much prospect for immediate commercial payoff so they would probably not get much priority in the DOC.

I did not know this. That explains the executive driven changes. Zonie said:. Pantherjon said:. I enjoy your posts as well. Luke is posting a 'book' again! I sometimes have to wonder tho, how many keyboards you go through in a year!

Surely you must wear out the keys! No, I don't know why it was created as an independent agency, actually. I'd suppose it has to do with 1 the nature of the work, being both highly scientific and yet engineering oriented, and relying on corporate contractors, and 2 the lack of experience with spaceflight by any other agency. NASA has actually "gotten in bed" with other agencies from time to time, as they did with the DOD in "cooperating" to get the shuttle the AF partially funded shuttle development and in the late 70's, with DOE, working on "solar power satellites" to 'beam' solar power down to Earth.

But invariably it's ended up being a fiasco. Plus, it would add another layer of bureaucracy to running NASA, making the decision making process and oversight process even more labyrinthine than it already is OL JR. Last edited: Jul 7, Well I was about six weeks from being born when NASA was formed July 29, , but from everything I have read there was a strong sentiment in that inter-service rivalries had caused a lot of disorganization in U. Von Braun said he could have launched a satellite in using the Army's Redstone-based booster, had he gotten the go-ahead to do so, but was ordered to hold back while the Navy's Vanguard program inched forward.

After getting egg-faced by both Sputnik I and II and the apparent likelihood the Soviets had the boost capability to put a man in orbit soon it was decided the U. This of course did not shut down all inter-departmental rivalries since projects such as Dyna-Soar and MOL continued on until the mids, but it was decided NASA would get the priority for manned space flight.

Looking back with 50 years hindsight it seems even more weird that the Army and Navy were the two service branches duking it out over who would get to launch space flights. I would have thought that stuff would almost naturally fall under the umbrella of the Air Force.

Zeus-cat Well-Known Member. Joined Mar 14, Messages 4, Reaction score I would venture to guess that, at the time, the army and navy had much more developed R and D structures than the air force did, and suspect that the air force was a bit behind the times, holding on to the concept of manned bombers for delivery of strategic nuclear weapons.

This essentially got kiboshed in when the US signed the UN Space Treaty sharply although not completely limiting the militarization of space. Of course all the individual services were not happy with the idea of giving up their individual space activities and everyone in NASA just busted a gasket over the idea. By the time momentum really started to build behind Apollo after the death of JFK, any move to encroach on NASA's turf was taken as an attempt to derail it from the end-of-decade goal.

Zeus-cat said:. I agree that NASA is a messed up place, but the military is worse. They've had decades more experience at screwing stuff up than NASA. When I was in the AF one of my projects was to buy a new maniframe computer system for our lab. We had the money. Pubic interest in space traveled waned again, and the Challenger disaster of further illustrated the dangers of space travel.

On January 28, a civilian joined a crew of professional astronauts for the first time. All seven members of the crew were killed. NASA was criticized for its lack of openness with the press in the wake of the disaster. Speculation ran rampant, with The New York Times and United Press International running stories suggesting that an external fuel tank had caused the explosion.

The Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, also known as the Rogers Commission , was charged with investigating the disaster. The commission worked for several months and published a report of its findings. During the rest of the s, the space program worked quietly on the Space Station Freedom , but some scientists at NASA wondered if unmanned missions such as the Voyager probes would return more useful scientific data.

It served as an important research tool and helped to repair damaged public relations following the Challenger disaster. An American craft again docked with a Russian craft, and together they created the largest space station ever built—the International Space Station ISS. The Space Shuttle Columbia had flown 27 successful research missions when it was launched on February 1, The Columbia Accident Investigation Board , convened to investigate the disaster, recommended technical and organizational issues and set the space program back two years as a result of its findings.

Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration, which called for the retirement of the space shuttle fleet by , the completion of ISS, and the development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle. It also called for a return to the Moon by in order to set up outposts for potential future missions to Mars.

Congress provided start-up funds for the first year of the new space program in late Although the flight was successful, a piece of foam similar to the one that caused the Columbia accident was dislodged, grounding the shuttles until the problem was solved. But the entire crew returned safely on August 9, In late August , the Michoud Assembly Facility, where the external tanks were constructed, was damaged in Hurricane Katrina. This delayed subsequent flights by several months, while damage from the hurricane was assessed.

Discovery touched down successfully on July 17, , after increasing the ISS crew to three. Although this did not delay the next mission, weather problems and other technical glitches continued to stymie scientists. Atlantis was the next successful space mission in September On December 4, , NASA announced that it was planning to build a permanent base on the Moon, with construction to commence in and projected completion in The plan, which would shift the role of NASA away from operating its own spacecraft to relying solely on commercial companies, was met with mixed reaction, including sharp criticism from several former astronauts , including Neil Armstrong.

The agency has sent spacecraft to Mercury and has Jupiter missions in the planning stages. The New Horizons mission to Pluto was launched in and will arrive in In August , the Phoenix Mars Mission was launched.

Sturdier and fitted with better imaging equipment, the Phoenix lander explored the northern Martian planes and provided extensive data during its five-month mission.

Its operations ended on May 25, , when communications failed after it suffered severe solar panel ice damage. During the past two decades, NASA has failed in three separate attempts to develop a new launch capability.

The absence of a concerted, heavily supported, and well-executed overall NASA mission in the future would leave a vacuum that could be easily filled by the already heavily budgeted military and national security outer space operations. As the U. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA is responsible for carrying out space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research. Presently, the agency manages orbital and off-planet missions such as Opportunity and Curiosity, the Mars Exploration Rovers; Cassini , a satellite in orbit around Saturn; the Hubble Space Telescope orbiting Earth that helps scientists explore the deepest reaches of space; the International Space Station, which is extending the permanent human presence in space; and Earth science satellites that send back data on oceans, climate, and other features.

NASA operates 10 field centers and a variety of installations that conduct the day-to-day work in laboratories, on airfields, in wind tunnels, and in control rooms. NASA also maintains four mission directorates under which most agency operations fall. These are:. Exploration Systems —This directorate will use the International Space Station as a stepping-stone for sending humans deeper into space, beginning with landing on an asteroid and then on Mars.

SMD seeks to understand the origins, evolution and destiny of the universe and to understand the nature of the strange phenomena that shape it. SMD also seeks to understand the nature of life in the universe and what kinds of life may exist beyond Earth; the solar system, both scientifically and in preparation for human exploration; and the Sun and Earth, changes in the Earth-Sun system, and the consequences of the Earth-Sun relationship for life on Earth.

The Space Operations Mission Directorate also oversees requirements for development, policy, and programmatic oversight. The directorate is similarly responsible for agency leadership and management of NASA space operations related to Launch Services, Space Transportation, and Space Communications in support of both human and robotic exploration programs. Press Releases - Recent.

According to USASpending. Alliant Techsystems Inc. The Deep Space Network networks communication facilities supporting interplanetary spacecraft missions, radio, and radar astronomy observations and exploration of the solar system.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory , a research center responsible for building and operating unmanned spacecraft, is fully staffed and supported by NASA. Astrobiologist Richard Hoover wrote in a paper published by the Journal of Cosmology that filaments and other findings inside a year-old space rock appeared to be fossilized alien microbes.

It was not the first time Hoover had made such a claim. Marathon Oil had its own stake in the project as it was trying to develop biofuels technology to sell to NASA, which some suggested was the reason Bolden killed the project.

Revkin, New York Times. James E. Hansen SpaceRef. On July 26, , NASA confirmed that at least one space program worker intentionally tried to sabotage a computer that was due to be flown on the shuttle Endeavour. NASA is an independent civilian space agency under the executive branch, created by Congress to help execute policy or provide special services other independent agencies include the Central Intelligence Agency , the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation.

Although NASA is not a cabinet-level organization like the Department of Defense, its administrator gets nominated by the president and must be confirmed by the Senate.

NASA's agenda often has been set by U. In , for example, President John F. Kennedy decided to focus NASA's goal on putting humans on the moon within a decade — a goal that the agency achieved with a year to spare. In , President Richard M. His successor, George H. Bush, in proposed sending humans to Mars [source: Weinraub ]. President George W. Bush in the s launched the Constellation program, which aimed to develop a new space vehicle and return to the moon by , a project envisioned as a prelude to a future Mars mission [source: Wall ].

Presidents also have undone their predecessors' plans.