Happy 50th, NASA

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of NASA. Born out of the American reaction to Sputnik, the agency was created during the Eisenhower administration. Perhaps the major force behind the creation, however, was the then Senate Majority Leader, Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas.

NASA came into being under Eisenhower, but President Kennedy gave the agency its historic mission-- to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth. Implicit in Kennedy's challenge was completing the task before the Soviets did it. In fact, to this day, the only humans who have ventured beyond low Earth orbit have been NASA astronauts fulfilling Kennedy's directive.

After Apollo, NASA's manned space program has drifted for lack of leadership by presidents and Congress, but the unmanned program has produced spectacular results on many fronts, completely transforming our understanding of the universe. What the next fifty years will see is unclear, but among the milestones could be a thriving lunar settlement, bases on Mars, the discovery of Earthlike planets orbiting other stars, and the discovery of life beyond Earth. NASA would likely have a strong hand in all that.