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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the official space agency of the United States. Practically all non-commercial space flight is controlled by NASA. NASA evolved from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1958.
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There are numerous subdivisions of NASA, each with a specific function in the organization.
- Ames Research Center: Information technology, astrobiology (the study of the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe) and aviation operations, capacity and safety issues.
- Dryden Flight Research Center: Aircraft, the Space Shuttle, biographies of test pilots.
- Glenn Research Center: Overviews of the center and several of its aeronautics and space projects and programs.
- Goddard Space Flight Center: Environmental science (including climate change and ozone research), astronomy (including the Hubble Space Telescope and Compton Gamma Ray Observatory), solar physics.
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Planetary exploration (including Galileo, Voyager, Magellan and upcoming missions to Mars), environmental research (including the Shuttle Imaging Radar and TOPEX/POSEIDON).
- Johnson Space Center: Human space flight, Space Shuttle missions, Space Station, Mission Control, Astronaut Fact Book, Lunar Samples.
- Kennedy Space Center: Space Shuttle components and launch procedures Space Shuttle missions.
- Langley Research Center: Aeronautics, atmospheric science, Shuttle experiments, technology spinoffs.
- Marshall Space Flight Center: Advanced X-Ray Astronomy Facility, Space Shuttle Main Engines, the Spacelab Program and microgravity research.
- Stennis Space Center: Space Shuttle Main Engine testing, geographic information systems, small spacecraft technology, commercial remote sensing.
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Created on October 1, 1958, NASA was created to replace other government organizations such as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The first high profile program was Project Mercury, which was used to determine whether humans could live in space, followed by Project Gemini, which built a spacecraft manned for two astronauts.
Since then many programs have followed, including the Apollo Missions to put the first men on the moon, and increasingly sophisticated probes, satellites and deep space telescopes.
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