Kennedy made the claim that the US would put a man on the moon before the end of the decade, and the Apollo project was born. Three weeks after Yuri Gagarin's orbit, Alan Shepard became the first American man to go into space, and in February 1962 John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. The reason that the United States began investing more money during the early 60s was because of advancements made by the Soviets in this time, such as the launch of Luna 2, and Yuri Gagarin's first manned orbit of the earth. During this time NASA also worked with the CIA and US Air Force to monitor Soviet military activity. From the graph we can see that US investment in NASA in its infancy grew exponentially, jumping from 330 million US dollars in 1959 to 5.25 billion in 1965, which translates to approximately $34 billion in 2020 dollars, which is more than NASA has ever been allocated by the US government since its founding. The US responded in 1958 with the launch of Explorer I, and this was also the year that NASA was founded. While the relationship between the US and Russia is much friendlier today, with both countries cooperating on space endeavors such as the International Space Station (ISS), it is important to remember that tensions between both nations were very high during this time, and the launch of the satellite displayed the potential ability to launch nuclear warheads from space. In 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite (Sputnik) into the earth's orbit, marking the first significant development in the space race. NASA was founded at the beginning of what has become known as the 'space race,' a period of Cold War history where the Soviet Union and the US competed for dominance and superiority of space technology. It oversees the US space program, as well as research into aeronautics and aerospace, while the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) oversees military matters regarding space. In addition to those achievements, the shuttle program has helped humanity establish a foothold beyond our home planet for the first time - a major milestone, some analysts contend.The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the US Government, founded in 1958, taking over from the dissolved National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). And hundreds of experiments performed aboard the shuttles themselves have provided scientists with new insights in a range of fields, from biology and medicine to physics and materials science. And shuttle missions repaired and upgraded Hubble multiple times, enabling scientists to see the universe as never before.įurther, the $100 billion International Space Station, which could provide big research dividends down the road, has taken shape largely as a result of the shuttle's efforts. While the shuttle program hasn't lived up to the great - and, in hindsight, unrealistic - expectations NASA laid out for it in the early 1970s, it has delivered significant returns over the years, many experts say.įor example, the shuttle has lofted many important pieces of hardware into space, such as the Hubble Space Telescope.

Nasa space shuttle program cost