On This Day In Space: Oct. 1, 1958: Happy Birthday, NASA!

NeRD

On Oct. 1, 1958, NASA was born! The space agency officially opened for business on this day. 

President Eisenhower had signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law two months earlier in response to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik. 

President Eisenhower commissioned Dr. T. Keith Glennan, right, as the first administrator for NASA and Dr. Hugh L. Dryden as deputy administrator. The National Aeronautics and Space Act (Pub.L. 85-568), the United States federal statute that created NASA, was signed into law 50 years ago today on July 29, 1958. (Image credit: NASA)

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The U.S. didn’t want to get left behind in the space race, so Congress created NASA as an organized effort to advance space research and technology. 

NASA absorbed the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) along with its 8,000 employees and three laboratories. 

On This Day in Space Archive!  

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Still not enough space? Don’t forget to check out our Space Image of the Day, and on the weekends our Best Space Photos and Top Space News Stories of the week. 

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