NASA - 60 years old today

[Eric Mc]

NASA formally commenced operations on this day in 1958.

[Beati Dogu]

Happy birthday NASA.

And a much better acronym than its predecessor, NACA, is is too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5huB7UD9RVI&fe...

[Simpo Two]

It was a bloody good start. Earth orbit on 2 years, Moon in 11 years, then... back to Earth orbit again.

[Eric Mc]

Simpo Two said:

It was a bloody good start. Earth orbit on 2 years, Moon in 11 years, then... back to Earth orbit again.

You are only talking about manned spaceflight. And it is a tad unfair to directly compare the capability of a Mercury capsule with the Space Shuttle Orbiter.

However, I do agree that being limited to earth orbit after Apollo was not the best policy for NASA's manned programme. NASA agrees - and that is why their future manned ambitions lie beyond low earth orbit.

Of course, in the unmanned spaceflight sphere, NASA was done magnificent things - and continues to do so.

And of course, NASA has a science and engineering brief way beyond spaceflight - manned or unmanned.