since 1958 nasa is operated as one of the world's leading space agencies for over 60 years it's made
incredible achievements in space exploration and innovation in the quest to understand the cosmos
on july 29 1958 nasa opened its doors under the eyes in our administration the agency was
a direct response to aggressive policies made by the soviet union in the late 50s the ussr launched
sputnik 1 october 4th 1957. with sputnik's launch the soviet union was the only country to have an
operational satellite in space this achievement was lauded in the ussr but leaders in the u.s felt
blindsided by this soviet-led advancement giving rise to national security concerns in the years
following nasa's founding the space agency made incredible advancements in science and technology
thanks to its efforts to explore the universe the agency would experience its most formative years
during the 60s during the presidencies of jfk lbj nixon long after this influential leader's time in
office the agency has continued making incredible discoveries and advancements in space exploration
number 10. explorer one satellite kicking off nasa's impressive track record of reaching the
stars is the explorer one satellite when the agency formed in 1958 there was a need
for speed to showcase america's potential in space hoping to give the soviets a run
for their money at a moment where the ussr had successfully shown their early dominance in space
eyes now wanted to send a powerful message that america wouldn't sit back and allow their rival
superpower the opportunity to be the gatekeepers to space explorer 1 predates nasa's very existence
and acted as the means to kick off the u.s space age and make their mark on the global space race
thankfully the mission was a success launching on july 31 1958 explorer 1 wasn't just designed to
show the soviets that america could also launch satellites it had a scientific purpose to it
and that was to orbit the earth while studying cosmic rays explorer 1 orbited the earth 12 and
a half times a day and its efforts helped provide a new key to understanding the earth's atmosphere
this monumental achievement launched the agency and made a pathway for a series of explorer
satellites launched throughout 1958 while the federal government was more concerned with
showing the soviet union its might scientists knew that their understanding of the universe
would change with every satellite mission telescope and more launched into space they
simply weren't aware of how much they'd achieve in the coming decade 9. skylab the early 70s saw nasa
riding the high of its achievements of the late 1960s the agency was making progress on countless
fronts and showing the world just how seriously the u.s was taking space exploration regardless
of nasa's achievements the soviets weren't letting up and were still making tremendous
efforts to one-up their rival superpower in a race to dominate space however space overall was filled
with unknowns with burning questions still left unanswered and multiplying by the day the soviet
union launched sally won on april 19 1971 becoming the first space station in low earth orbit the u.s
wouldn't leave this unanswered and thus skylab was born skylab was the first u.s space station
was launched on may 14 1973. the mission was to investigate the effects that space had on the
human body and how it adapted to an intensely foreign environment skylab also attempted to
observe and study the sun in excruciating detail and observe earth's resources three successive
crews visited skylab during its operation between 1973 and 1974. by 1979 skylab deteriorated much
quicker than anyone expected and on july the 11th it re-entered the atmosphere burning up
on re-entry it broke into pieces and scattered in populated areas in western australia while
bulkier pieces went into the southeastern indian ocean thankfully nobody was injured 8. voyager the
voyage missions were nasa's attempts at sending satellites far beyond where anything from earth
had gone before launched in august and september 1977 the twin spacecraft's on a 40-year mission
across space to provide insight into what lies in the furthest reaches of our galaxy in august 2012
voyager 1 made history as dented interstellar space in november 2018 voyager 2 exited the
heliosphere and joined voyager 1 into stellar space this wasn't the original intention of these
missions after successfully completing its initial mission of exploring jupiter and saturn and making
historic discoveries of these two gas planets nasa extended the voyage of missions to explore uranus
and neptune and now the interstellar region voyager 1 also carried a message for alien
life in the event it encounters life beyond our solar system the message comes as a gold-plated
record filled with a message to intelligent life forms it contains greeting in over 55
languages pictures of earth pictures of people knowledge music and earth sounds 7. freedom 7.
freedom 7 also known as mercury redstone 3 is historic for two reasons for starters it
carried the first american successfully launched into space following the success of the soviets
launching the first ever human interspace yuri gagarin second it acted as catalyst for john f
kennedy to announce the united states intentions to land on the moon on may 5th 1961 l b shepherd
jr u.s navy commander was launched in a mercury space capsule which would be formally known as
the freedom 7 from cape canaveral shepard remained in space for 15 and a half minutes making him the
first american in space three weeks after freedom 7 safely returned to earth landing in the atlantic
ocean jfk announced the goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade in one of the
most historic speeches in presidential history jfk said we choose to go to the moon in this decade
and do the other things not because they are easy but because they are hard 6. apollo 13. the
apollo program was one of nasa's most successful programs in the agency's history however apollo
13 is a unique success in that it was a successful failure apollo 13 launched on april the 11th 1970
with astronauts jim lovell jack swaggart and fred hayes at the helm it intended to land on framara
a crater on the moon however it would instead never make it to its destination this mission
as any 1990s movie buff now knows became one of survival 55 hours and 46 minutes into the
mission the crew had just finished a 49-minute address to the nation letting them know that
everything was going to plan the astronauts have just pressurized the lunar module and while level
moved through the connecting tunnel on the way back to the command module a loud explosion
could be heard from the aquarius lunar module the explosion was the result of the astronauts needing
to stir the cold oxygen by turning on internal fans periodically the routine task caused the
explosion all three returned to the command module and level immediately reported to mission control
electricity was lost in the command module and at 200 000 miles from earth they now faced a crisis
of depleting oxygen water destroyed fuel tanks and limited control for a while the severity
of the situation hadn't been realized they knew the cryogenic oxygen tank's pressure levels were
dropping so they fed supplies to the three fuel cells to keep everything running eventually they
abandoned the planned objective to land on the moon the mission was now about getting apollo 13
home safely mission control determined that using the lunar module's engine and gravity from the
moon was the safest course of action meaning apollo 13 was no longer landing but instead
swinging around the moon the crew was forced to work out their navigation by hand in coordination
with ground control the idea of using the lunar module to make its way around the moon was a point
of concern considering it was not what the module was designed to do on april 14th they executed a
five-minute engine burn putting them on a safe return trajectory the journey was far from over
but now there was renewed hope that they'd return home for three days apollo 13 traveled through
space in freezing conditions finally on april 17th they re-entered earth's atmosphere in a
touch-and-go mission from the moment the explosion occurred after four minutes of
radio silence mission control feared the worst only for the parachutes to be spotted moments
later resulting in the astronaut safely landing in the pacific ocean while one might say the mission
was a failure nasa might say differently 5. the perseverance rover since the dawn of the space age
mars has been of particular interest to scientists the reason behind this intense interest is because
of mars position as the most similar planet to our own since 1997 nasa has had a presence on mars
thanks to a series of rovers the first launch or touchdown on the red planet was pathfinder
launched in 1996. before rovers became the primary tool of mars exploration the
viking mission in 1976 resulted in lander modules reaching the surface of mars to investigate signs
of life since 1996 five rovers have been sent to master to study the planet pathfinder spirit
opportunity curiosity and perhaps most impressively of them all perseverance
the perseverance rover the most recent launch to date is specifically designed to examine mars for
future human-led missions one of the bleeding science experiments on board perseverance aims
to showcase the ability to produce oxygen on the surface of mars perseverance also contains a drone
which has since become the first object to fly on mars with humans closer than ever to exploring the
red planet the perseverance rover is equipped to examine the climate weather dust and collect
samples for future study to better understand the geological history and potential of mars
4. james webb space telescope less than a decade after the launch of the hubble telescope we'll
get to that in a minute work had already begun on a successive telescope it would become known
as the james webb space telescope named after nasa's second administrator the james webb space
telescope has been in development since 1996 and construction since 2004 with it finally launching
on december 24th 2021. the road to launch was a long and rocky one and the threat of the project
being scrapped came up many times during its lengthy development regardless of the tiresome
journey to launch the power of the james webb space telescope is undeniable a collaboration
between nasa the european space agency and the canadian satellite observatory it's a technical
marvel the hope of the james webb telescope is to discover the first stars and galaxies formed
in the earliest iterations of the universe the telescope detects light in infrared allowing to
see inside dusty clouds as well as stars forming planetary systems the mission is far from over
but the sheer magnitude of its very existence is an achievement it took a considerable effort to
get the james webb space telescope from concept to launch if successful the telescope will hopefully
observe the farthest reaches of the galaxy helping scientists find exoplanets and potentially even
signs of life 3. hubble on the 24th of april 1990 the discovery space shuttle launched from the
kennedy space center and with it took what would become one of nasa's most significant efforts
to answer the mysteries of space for decades to come the hubble telescope before hubble's
existence scientists relied on ground-based light telescopes to help provide a view into
space however considering the limitations of ground-based telescopes the image is often lacked
to find representations in 1979 work began on the hubble telescope in collaboration with the esa
it was named after edwin p hubble an early 20th century astronomer credited with discovering the
expanding universe initially the telescope was intended to launch in the 80s but setbacks the
challenger disaster of 1986 and political fallout delayed the project into the 90s throughout its
three-decade existence the hubble telescope has provided unprecedented access into the universe
since launching in 1990 it's made over 1.5 million observations this provided scientists and space
enthusiasts around the world with new ways of understanding this vast solar system that we
inhabit 2. the iss in 1980 president ronald reagan approved the development of the international
space station which at the time was a domestic attempt at a space station named freedom nasa was
given 10 years to build and launch the station in 1989 with the cold war between the soviet
union and the united states dying down before formally ending in 1990 with the dissolution of
the ussr plans were adapted to make freedom the international space station this reformation and
complete redesign of the space station was part of an effort to reduce the costs and promote global
cooperation in the advancement of science in 1993 saw two former rivals joining forces when russia
agreed to merge their international space station module to the iss russia joined a growing list of
countries in contributing to the iss on november 20th 1998 russia launched the first segment of
the iss the united states launched their first module called unity 15 days later the iss would
host its first residence on november 2 2000 with astronaut bill shepard being joined by cosmonauts
sergey krikalev and yuri godzenko over the course of that decade further additions were made to the
iss including a russian-built habitat and control center a nasa microgravity lab a european lab and
a japanese lab this pivotal player in science has the involvement of many countries from around the
world including the u.s russia canada brazil 11 members of the eu and japan 251 astronauts have
stayed on the iss for various periods of time the iss has played a role in groundbreaking
discoveries in disease medicine water purification and the effects of space on the human body
1. apollo 11. one can't talk about nasa's greatest achievements without mentioning the historic
success that was apollo 11 in 1969 jfk made it clear after the success of freedom 7 that the
united states fully intended to send a man to the moon before the end of the decade sadly he didn't
live to see neil armstrong take the first steps on the lunar surface as he was assassinated in 1963.
despite his death his successors lyndon b johnson and richard nixon didn't take the nation's foot
off the gas thanks to the long-standing rivalry between the two super bows during the cold war
once jfk set the goal of getting a man on the moon nothing could derail what would become a
defining moment in history it became not just a means for prestige but also national security
lbj had the words of eisenhower in his head and feared that if russia achieved dominance in space
the potential for a nuclear attack from beyond the earth's surface was imminent he famously
said on march 1 1968 at nasa's manned spacecraft center in houston we will not abandon our dream we
will never evacuate the frontiers of space to any other nation apollo 11 launched on july the 16th
1969 from cape canaveral three astronauts were chosen to be a part of history neil armstrong
buzz aldrin and michael collins it traveled for four days before reaching the moon on july the
20th it was estimated that an astounding 650 million people watched armstrong's televised
descent to the lunar surface and heard him say the first words ever uttered on the
for moon