NASA is the space agency run by the United States to oversee American space exploration, research and technology. NASA, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was founded in 1958 as a civilian agency for U.S. space exploration. Prior to 1958, the agency's progenitor was known as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. NASA develops, builds and launches missions to study the Earth, moon and sun, as well as the entire solar system and beyond. The agency has its headquarters in Washington D.C., with major centers in Florida (the Kennedy Space Center for launches) and Houston (the Johnson Space Center, home of the astronaut corps). Other centers are spread across the country for scientific research, test flights and spacecraft manufacturing. NASA's current chief is Administrator Jim Bridenstine, who is leading the agency's mission of returning astronauts to the moon and sending them on to Mars. See the latest NASA news.
Related Topics: Apollo Program, China Space Program, Incredible Space Tech, International Space Station, Interstellar Travel
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Latest about NASA
Happy Earth Day 2025! Write your name in NASA satellite images and celebrate our planet (video)
Check out this fun way to embrace Earth Day and NASA's 60 years of planetary observation.
NASA's Lucy probe flies by the asteroid Donaldjohanson on Easter Sunday
On Easter Sunday (April 20), NASA's Lucy probe should have zipped past the asteroid Donaldjohanson, testing science instruments on the space rock.
Watch NASA astronaut Don Pettit and 2 cosmonauts return to Earth today
NASA astronaut Don Pettit and two cosmonaut colleagues will return to Earth from the International Space Station this evening (April 19), and you can watch it live.
'Take care of our station. It's our everything.' Russian cosmonaut hands control of ISS over to Japanese astronaut (video)
Russia's Alexey Ovchinin handed the keys of the International Space Station to Japanese spaceflyer Takuya Onishi in a change-of-command ceremony today (April 18).
'It's very pro-commercial space right now': An industry insider's off-Earth status report
Space.com caught up recently with Dave Cavossa, president of the Commercial Space Federation, to discuss the state of the U.S. private space industry.
NASA continues stacking its giant Artemis 2 SLS moon rocket (photos)
NASA's next moon rocket is stacking higher and higher at the Kennedy Space Center, as the SLS stage adapter and interim cryogenic propulsion stage arrive in the VAB.
'Planetary defense is knowing what's out there and what could do harm to us.' Meet the scientist who helped build NASA's asteroid response plan
A Q&A with Lindley Johnson, a pioneer in blueprinting warning and response scenarios to any potential impact of Earth by an asteroid or comet.
James Webb Space Telescope discovers most distant and earliest Milky Way 'twin' ever seen. Meet dragon-galaxy Zhúlóng (image)
The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted the most distant spiral galaxy ever seen, a "Milky Way twin" that existed 1 billion years after the Big Bang.
