NASA turns 60



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60 years ago, motivated by competition with the Soviet Union, the United States created NASA to launch a space adventure that would take them to the moon

Today, US National Aeronautics and Space Agency is seeking new ways to survive in an area where more and more international space agencies and commercial interests are competing.

Since its inception, NASA has given a new impetus to space research but has also experienced tragic moments such as the explosion of two spacecraft. in 1986 and 2003 with a total of 14 deaths

The ambition to return to the long-term may be hampered by the problem of funding the service, which will not allow him to return to space during a tens of years and March before the 2030s.

NASA now depends on the private sector and has signed contracts with SpaceX and Boeing to allow it to send its astronauts into space after 2019

The service can not send (19659003) Today it is forced to pay 80 million dollars in Russia for every American who goes in space with ships Soyuz

] 1957 The Soviet Union sends its first satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957, while US attempts, mainly under the aegis of the military, are miserably displaced

US President Duke Eisenhauer asked at the time to set up a joint space service, independent of the army. On July 29, 1958, he signed the bill for the creation of NASA

. However, the Soviets won another victory in the space battle in April 1961 when Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go into space

US President George. F. Kennedy revealed the American plans to send a man to the moon before the end of the decade

Apollo was born

In 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first man to orbit. In 1965, Neil Armstrong wrote history as the first man to go to the moon.

"Apollo was the demonstration of the power of a state," recalls John Lawson, an honorary professor at the George Washington University Space Policy Institute.

"The fact that Kennedy decided to use the space program as a means of declaring geopolitical competition made NASA a national political organization with a very large budget."

the duration of the Apollo program at NASA, it accounted for at least 5% of the US budget. this percentage has fallen to less than 0.5%, or nearly 18 billion a year, and NASA no longer plays a role in national politics, according to Logson.

New era

NASA saw other days of glory in the 1980s, such as the birth of the div

What happened today? hui

US President Donald Trump defended his return to the moon and called for the creation of a road that would also allow a continuous stream of spacecraft and visitors to the moon and would also serve as a point of departure. departure for March.

He also called for the creation of a Space Force, the sixth corps of the US Army to occupy the US defense. "About 70 countries are involved in one way or another in space activities," said Lonsdale.

Instead of competing with them, NASA "puts the emphasis on cooperation" to reduce costs and promote innovation.

NASA leader Jim Bradstein said this week that he wanted to work with other countries. He even mentioned the possibility that NASA will strengthen cooperation with China and added that he recently traveled to Israel to meet teams working on recruitment techniques.

The predecessor of Charles Bolden had warned not to repeat the mistakes of the time of the space program, that the United States would retreat as soon as it was preparing to make progress. "We can not afford another vacuum like this," Bolden said.

The mission of the next Moon is expected to last five years and NASA plans to spend $ 10 billion of its budget on exploration. 2019.

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