NASA Full Form
What is the full form of NASA?
The full form of NASA is National Aeronautics and Space Administration. On October 1, 1958, NASA was established as a branch of the US government. The United States space and aviation-related science and technology are under the control of NASA.
The focus of NASA
The science priorities of NASA are to better understand Earth through the Earth Observing System, advance heliophysics through the Science Mission Directorate's Heliophysics Research Program, explore bodies throughout the Solar System with cutting-edge robotic spacecraft like New Horizons and planetary rovers like Perseverance, and study astrophysics topics, through the James Webb Space Telescope, the Great Observatories, and other facilities.
NASA's work
Numerous activities are carried out by NASA. Satellites are built by NASA. The satellites aid in the scientific study of Earth. NASA launches spacecraft. Researchers at NASA explore the solar system and even further afield. Human explorers will be sent to the Moon and Mars as part of a new mission. Additionally, NASA disseminates its knowledge to others. NASA's ideas can be used by that outside of the agency to create original products. These innovative technologies could improve Earthly living.
The Top Ten Achievements of NASA
1. The first American satellite was Explorer 1
This tiny particle altered the way we think about the atmosphere of Earth. The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory started developing the spacecraft that will orbit the Earth after Sputnik. Explorer 1 was completed by JPL in under three months. Once Explorer 1 reached space, it started gathering data on the cosmic rays there.
2. The Universe Unveiled with the Hubble Space Telescope
Prior to 1990, light telescopes on the ground provided the majority of our views of space. The pictures weren't particularly clear, but they were interesting. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) can help with it. Although it wasn't the first space telescope, the HST has emerged as one of the most significant technological achievements in history. This telescope, which bears the name Edwin Hubble, has examined more than 40,000 different space objects and more than 1.5 million astronomical observations. It is still getting better today.
3. The High-energy Universe at the Chandra X-ray Observatory
The most sensitive X-ray telescope ever built was launched by NASA in 1999, and it held that title for several years. This device has the ability to observe phenomena that had never been observed before, such as the brief moment when space particles vanish into a black hole. Chandra will improve our knowledge of the universe's beginnings by revealing details on the birth and death of stars. It might also enable us to evaluate whether distant planets are habitable.
4. A Trip to Jupiter with the Juno Spacecraft
Another probe is currently examining the gas giant. Juno is a spacecraft that was launched on August 5, 2011, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Its goal is to learn more about Jupiter, especially its gravitational fields and ferocious atmosphere. The spacecraft is currently in an elliptical orbit around the gas giant, travelling along a path that gets it within 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometres) of Jupiter's cloud tops.
5. Brilliant work from Mission Control in Apollo 13
The moon was where Apollo 13 was going. The spacecraft launched on April 11th, 1970. After 55 hours and 55 minutes, practically all of the systems required to keep life on board were destroyed by an explosion.
6. A Reusable Spacecraft, the Space Shuttle
Four more space shuttles—Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour—arrived after Columbia. This group of five completed 135 missions between 1981 and 2011, many of which were stays at the International Space Station (ISS). From the beginning of the project to the first flight, it took nine years. The first mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia, which launched in 1981, was a success. NASA was able to produce a reusable spacecraft.
7. Apollo 8: A Lunar Christmas Eve Mission
The crew's safe arrival back on their home planet on December 27, 1968, marked the end of the mission. Neil Armstrong's "one little step" on the lunar surface was made possible thanks to the work of Apollo 8. With each new piece of information, we draw closer to the long-awaited sequel: manned expeditions to Mars.
8. The Mars Science Laboratory: A Red Planet Rockhound
You probably already know which planet NASA's Mars Pathfinder initially landed on in 1997 without first orbiting it. The Mars Science Laboratory, a $2.5 billion expedition that features a six-wheeled rover called "Curiosity" as its major attraction, is one of Pathfinder's most ambitious successors. Earlier rovers relied on solar panels for electricity, which made them vulnerable to Martian dust storms and times of low light. Curiosity avoids these issues by producing electricity using plutonium.
9. The first American spacecraft, Freedom 7
Alan Shepard was the first American to orbit the planet, and he blasted off on May 5, 1961. He wasn't the first person in space; that honour belongs to a Soviet cosmonaut by the name of Yuri Gagarin. Shepard, however, marked NASA's entrance into the history of human spaceflight.
10. A Moonwalk with Apollo 11
President John F. Kennedy revealed the mission that would be NASA's greatest success just 20 days after Alan Shepard orbited the Earth: America was going to the moon. NASA started the Apollo space program in response.
Key differences between NASA and ISRO
ISRO stands for Indian Space Research Organization and NASA is the abbreviation for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
ISRO is primarily based on development-oriented missions, such as satellites for communication and weather forecasting, etc. NASA is mostly centred on missions with a scientific focus.
Aryabhata, India's first satellite, was built by ISRO while NASA was the first organisation to send a person to the moon.
Aeronautics is excluded from ISRO while Aeronautics is included in NASA.
The US's civilian space program for aerospace and aviation research is called NASA. India's leading space agency is ISRO.
ISRO has not conducted any manned space flights, although NASA has.
Earlier robotic exploratory initiatives done by NASA
Throughout its history, NASA has run numerous robotic and unmanned spaceflight initiatives. The first American artificial satellites for science and communications were launched into Earth orbit by unmanned robotic projects. These programmes also dispatched scientific probes to investigate the planets of the Solar System, beginning with Venus and Mars and including "grand tours" of the outer planets. The Solar System and Earth have been the subject of more than 1,000 unmanned missions.
Exploration of the heliosphere
The robotic spacecraft that NASA has launched and is currently managing to research the heliosphere is represented by the missions listed below. The 1970s saw the launch of the Helios A and Helios B missions, which were the first spacecraft to orbit inside Mercury's orbit and were intended to investigate the Sun. The second SMEX mission was launched into orbit in August 1996 with the Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST) mission. Its very elliptical orbit allowed it to observe the auroral zones close to each pole while transiting.
The first spacecraft made to function at the Earth-Sun L1 libration point was the International Earth-Sun Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) mission, which was launched in 1978. The Earth's magnetosphere's farthest edges, solar-terrestrial interactions, and the composition of the solar wind.
Planetary Science
The NASA Science Mission Directorate's Earth Sciences Division is in charge of doing research on the globe. Since the middle of the 1960s, spacecraft have been employed to study Earth. From 1960 until the 2020s, numerous satellite systems, such as the Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) and Nimbus, carried out weather research and forecasting from space.
Astronomy-related missions
A fleet of NASA astrophysics satellites, NASA GSFC, 2022
The NASA Science Mission Directorate Astrophysics division manages the agency's astrophysics science portfolio. Numerous types of space telescopes are being developed, delivered, and operated by NASA with significant financial investment. These telescopes have made it possible to explore the universe across a substantial portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Physicists all across the world have had access to a variety of observations thanks to the 1980s and 1990s launch of the Great Observatories. The Hubble Space Telescope, the first of them, was put into orbit in 1990 and is still operational in part thanks to earlier servicing flights carried out by the Space Shuttle.
NASA's recent update on the Crew program
Dates for Starliner Flights
The collaborative team is working closely to identify forward work, shut out OFT-2 anomalies, and make sure all conditions are met for crewed flights. Numerous verification projects involving several crucial systems are now being worked on by NASA and Boeing in preparation for the crew flight certification of the Starliner.
Dates of Future SpaceX Flights
The launch of the agency's Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station is planned for mid-February 2023 by NASA and SpaceX.
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida's Launch Complex 39A will serve as the launch pad for a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA astronauts Woody Hoburg and Stephen Bowen of Dragon as well as Sultan AlNeyadi of the United Arab Emirates and Andrei Fedyaev of Roscosmos to the International Space Station. The crew will stay on the space station for around six months, beginning with a brief handover with Crew-5, which arrived at the station in October for a scientific excursion at the microgravity laboratory. In order to launch Crew-7 to the International Space Station before Crew-6 returns, NASA and SpaceX have set fall 2023 as the launch date.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Engineering, biological science, physical science (such as physics, chemistry, or geology), computer science, or mathematics majors are sought after by NASA.
In addition to continuing to transport expedition personnel to and from the International Space Station with partner SpaceX, the agency will test Boeing's Starliner for routine crew trips this year. It will also launch NASA's first private astronaut mission to the space station with Axiom Space.
We are aware of the separations between the planets from Earth thanks to trigonometry. If an astronaut already knows the distance from a specific location, they can use trigonometry to determine the unknown distances.
The three scientific fields of general physical science, astronomy and space science, and physics account for the majority of science positions at NASA. We employ 15 distinct categories of scientists to contribute to our diverse projects and goals.
To improve people's lives is what drives us. NASA recently made the decision to concentrate on three distinct global challenges: freshwater, food security, and natural catastrophes. These are some of the greatest challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century, and NASA is well-positioned to assist.