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Sixty years ago, stimulated by competition with the Soviet Union, the United States created NASA, launching a journey that would take the Americans to the moon in a decade
. crushing failures in its efforts to push the boundaries of space exploration, including a deadly fire in 1967 that killed three and two deadly explosions in 1986 and 2003 that killed 14 people.
Now, NASA is struggling to redefine itself. an increasingly crowded field of international space agencies and commercial interests, with the aim of returning to the distant space.
These bold goals make rhetoric, but experts are worried that the money is not there to meet deadlines. the moon in the next decade and March by the 2030s.
And the inability of NASA to send astronauts into space – a capacity lost in 2011 when the space shuttle program came to an end as expected, after 30 years. While US private industries are working on new spacecraft crews, NASA still has to pay Russia $ 80 million per seat for US astronauts to climb into space on a Soyuz capsule
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first satellite in space with Sputnik 1, while American attempts failed miserably.
The US government was already working on space, but mainly in the appearance of
President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked Congress to create a separate civilian space agency to better focus on the Space exploration
It promulgated the National Aeronautics and Space Authorization Act on July 29, 1958. [19659002] NASA opened its doors in October 1958, with approximately 8,000 employees and a budget of $ 100 million.
Space Race
The Soviets won another key part of the Gagarin Beca race A month later, John F. Kennedy unveiled plans to land a man on the moon at the end of the decade
"No single space project in this period will be more impressive for humanity., or more important for long-distance exploration of space;" The Apollo program was born
In 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to gravitate around the Earth In 1969, NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon
The American astronauts of the time were national heroes – military pilots with the combination of brains, guts and grit that became known as "The Right Stuff", the title of the book classic of Tom Wolfe
The words of Armstrong then that he was stepping on the lunar surface – "a small step for man, a giant step for humanity" – were heard by millions of people around the world [19659002] John Logsdon, Professor Emeritus at the Space Policy Institute of George Washington University
"Kennedy has decided to use the space program as a manifest geopolitical competition instrument that has made NASA a policy instrument national. ,
In total, five percent of the national budget went to NASA at the time of Apollo.
NASA now receives about $ 18 billion a year, less than half a percent Logsdon said:
New era
More days of glory followed in the 1980s with the birth of NASA's shuttle program, a reusable spacecraft the size of a bus that transported astronauts into space, and finally to the International Space Station, which has was commissioned in 1998.
But what is NASA today?
President Donald Trump defended a return to the moon, calling for a lunar bridge that would allow a continuous spacecraft and people to visit the moon and serve as a starting point for Mars.
The creation of a "Space Force", a sixth branch of the military that would focus on defending US interests.
NASA has long been considered a world leader in space innovation, but today the international field is much more populated. few years ago.
"Now you have something like 70 countries that are in one way or another involved in space activity," says Logsdon
. Teasel Muir-Harmony, curator at the National Museum of Air and Space
"How can NASA benefit?"
Jim Bridenstine, director of NASA, told a recent panel discussion he He mentioned the possibility of strengthening cooperation with China, and how he recently traveled to Israel to meet with commercial interests working on a lunar lander.
Bridenstine stated that the reason for his visit was "how do you do that, what are you doing and can NASA benefit from it?"
NASA moves away from the low Earth orbit, seeking the space station's hand to commercial interests after 2024, and spend millions in seed capital to help private companies like SpaceX and Boeing build capsules to transport humans to space in years to come.
Bridenstine said Trump's budget demands for NASA were "very generous." 1965 9002] NASA plans to spend about $ 10 billion of its nearly $ 20 billion budget on lunar exploration in 2019.
Bridenstine's predecessor at the helm of NASA, l 39; retired astronaut Charles Bolden warned against the recurrence of shuttle-era errors, when the United States ended their human exploration program without another vessel space be ready to take its place
.
"It is really crucial for NASA to facilitate the success of commercial entities to take over" in low Earth orbit, 400 miles (400 miles) above the planet. "And then for NASA to do what it does so well, be the leader of the lunar orbit."
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