Page 38 - July18LivingSCCLmagazine

at Sixty
By Lee Johnston
In July 1958, sixty years ago this month, during the International Geophysical Year, Congress passed the legislation creating
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a civilian
The original astronauts, the Mercury Seven, 1959. (L-R front row) Walter
M. "Wally" Schirra Jr., Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, John H. Glenn Jr., M. Scott Carpenter, (back row) Alan B. Shepard Jr., Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom and L. Gordon Cooper, Jr.
the moon; Skylab and the space shuttle; the Voyager program, bringing Earth’s message to the cosmos; the Viking program that started the orbiting, landing, and roving on Mars; probes into the Van Allen radiation belt; the Landsat Earth imagery program; and, among many other programs, the launch of several telescopes, including Hubble, the flawed version and its triumphant repair mission.
From the first days, there were setbacks. There were accidents in testing and training, and
in launchings, flights, and recoveries. The disasters, in manned and unmanned missions, have ranged from parachute failure on orbiter reentry to the loss of life. The Challenger
and Columbia disasters, in 1986 and 2003, tragedies we all remember, mark the lowest, saddest points in the agency’s history.
NASA’s programs are ongoing and strong. The agency makes a wide range of information and pictures available to the public. Google any
of NASA’s many programs, or, for example, google NASA and Jupiter, and you’ll get a
vast array of webpages from which to choose. Go to NASA Live, at nasa.gov/nasalive, to discover what’s going on at the agency just in real time. The website is frequently updated. NASA Live will also direct you to the many live events they show each month. They cover events like launches, conferences, council
Space shuttle Atlantis launch May 2010
agency, not military, to oversee and coordinate our nation’s endeavors in space.
Adding astronauts to the mix, NASA retired the National Committee for Aeronautics, NACA, the agency established in 1915. In the wake of the Soviet’s surprise launch of Sputniks I and II in 1957, and the obvious need to catch up and surpass their efforts, NASA was conceived and launched.
The first two satellite orbit attempts made in late 1957 and early in
January 1958, part of the Vanguard program, exploded after takeoff.
Explorer 1 made our first earth orbit on January 31, 1958,
marking our entry into space. It is interesting to note that
the Vanguard 1, launched as the first satellite to have solar power, though now incommunicado, is still in orbit, making up part of the great defunct- junk collection in space.
In the decades since it was established, NASA oversaw the first moon orbits and landings; the Apollo program and the first man on
38 LIVING @ SCCL, July 2018