NASA: News

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration commonly abbreviated as NASA is the American government’s national civil space program that has earned a name for itself in space exploration. NASA is spread across 20 centers across the United States. It employs approximately 18,000 civil servants and claims to have created over 312,000 jobs across the US, generating over $64.3 billion in economic output in 2019. It also works with several contractors, academicians, and international partners. The agency operates with an annual budget of $23.2 billion (as of FY2021). NASA was established in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging the peaceful application of space science. Over the years, NASA has pioneered several human spaceflight programs including the X-15 program from 1954 to 1968, Project Apollo from 1960 to 1972, Skylab from 1965 to 1979, and Apollo-Soyuz from 1972 to 1975. NASA is also credited with putting the international space station into orbit, launching the commercial crew program that has helped the likes of SpaceX, and the Artemis program designed around the colonization of the moon. As of September 2021, NASA is led by Administrator Bill Nelson.