NASA's planned Space Interferometry Mission ( SIM PlanetQuest ) ( now cancelled ) was to utilize astrometric techniques to detect terrestrial planets orbiting 200 or so of the nearest solar-type stars, and the European Space Agency's GAIA ( due to launch in 2012 ), which will be applying astrometric techniques in its stellar census.

The program laid the foundation for NASA's current human spaceflight capability, and funded construction of its Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center.

It became clear that managing the Apollo program would exceed the capabilities of Robert Gilruth's Space Task Group, which had been directing the nation's manned space program from NASA's Langley Research Center.

In July 2011, after returning the piece of debris at NASA's request, the sixteen-year-old Schanze was given an all-access tour of the Kennedy Space Center as well as VIP seating for the launch of STS-135, the final mission of the Space Shuttle program.

STS-51-F ( also known as Spacelab 2 ) was the nineteenth flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and the eighth flight of Space Shuttle Challenger.

The Spitzer Science Center ( SSC ), part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center located on the Caltech campus, is the data analysis and community support center for NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

NASA's Advanced Automation for Space Missions study directly inspired the science fiction novel Code of the Lifemaker ( 1983 ) by author James P. Hogan.

When it comes to the world's largest door, there is not just one, in fact there are four and they all belong to NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center.

* Deep Space 1 Mission Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration

Project manager Stephen Merkowitz talks about his work with NASA's Space Geodesy Project, including a brief overview of the four fundamental techniques of space geodesy: GPS, VLBI, SLR, and DORIS.

NASA's Deep Space One was a very successful test of a prototype ion drive, which fired for a total of 678 days and enabled the probe to run down Comet Borrelly, a feat which would have been impossible for a chemical rocket.

* 2005 – Space Shuttle program: STS-114 Mission – Launch of Discovery, NASA's first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia Disaster in 2003.

* 2011 – NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135.

It is also responsible for operating NASA's Deep Space Network.

JPL has been recognized four times by the Space Foundation: with the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award, which is given annually to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to public awareness of space programs, in 1998 ; and with the John L. " Jack " Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration on three occasions – in 2009 ( as part of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Team ), 2006 and 2005.

In the February 1964 issue of Popular Science, von Braun, then director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center ( MSFC ), discussed the need for a lunar surface vehicle, and revealed that studies had been underway at MSFC in conjunction with Lockheed, Bendix, Boeing, General Motors, Brown Engineering, Grumman, and Bell Aerospace.

NASA's now retired Space Shuttle program used a large amount of 1970s-era technology.

Applications range from structural elements such as steel-reinforced concrete, to the thermally insulative tiles which play a key and integral role in NASA's Space Shuttle thermal protection system which is used to protect the surface of the shuttle from the heat of re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

The spacecraft was designed by Max Faget and NASA's Space Task Group.

* 1982 – NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center on its third mission, STS-3.

* Orion ( spacecraft ), NASA's Space Shuttle replacement

Space Shuttle Challenger ( NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-099 ) was NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, Columbia having been the first.

After its first flight in April 1983, Challenger quickly became the workhorse of NASA's Space Shuttle fleet, flying far more missions per year than Columbia.

Space Shuttle Columbia ( NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-102 ) was the first spaceworthy Space Shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet.

Shuttle related facilities represent over a quarter of NASA's inventory.

These Research & Development organizations support NASA's Exploration efforts, as well as the continued operations of the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, and the space science and Aeronautics work across NASA.

Prior to the signing of this law, all commercial satellite launches in the United States were limited to NASA's Space Shuttle.

Furthermore, neither the Shuttle nor NASA's single SR-71B was operating on the days the booms had been registered.

All current spaceflight except NASA's Space Shuttle and the SpaceX Falcon 1 use multi-stage expendable launch systems to reach space.

The latter three are part of NASA's series of Great Observatories ; this series also includes the Spitzer Space Telescope, but this was not launched by a Space Shuttle and MSFC had no significant role in its development.

The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory ( CGRO ) is another of NASA's Great Observatories ; it was launched April 5, 1991, on Shuttle flight STS-37.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Gold was a vocal critic of NASA's Space Shuttle program, deriding claims that the agency could fly 50 missions a year or that it could have low budget costs.

Imaging from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission STS-99 reveals part of the 180 kilometre ( 112 mi ) diameter ring of the crater ; clustered around the crater's trough are numerous sinkhole s, suggesting a prehistoric oceanic basin in the depression left by the impact.

When Kennedy's newly appointed NASA Administrator James E. Webb requested a 30 percent budget increase for his agency, Kennedy supported an acceleration of NASA's large booster program but deferred a decision on the broader issue.

* Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System, an on-going NASA meteorological experiment, part of NASA's Earth Observing System ( EOS ) program

For example, NASA's workhorse space shuttle used cryogenic hydrogen / oxygen propellant as its primary means of getting into orbit, and all of the rockets built for the Soviet space program by Sergei Korolev used liquid oxygen as their oxidiser.

Gemini 10 ( officially Gemini X ) was a 1966 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program.

NASA's Apollo program, however, landed twelve people on the Moon and returned them to Earth.

* 1966 – Gemini 11, the penultimate mission of NASA's Gemini program, and the current human altitude record holder ( except for the Apollo lunar missions )

Following the conclusion of the ALT test flight program, on March 13, 1978, Enterprise was flown once again, but this time half way across the country to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center ( MSFC ) in Alabama for the Mated Vertical Ground Vibration Testing ( MGVT ).

** NASA's Explorer 1, the first American satellite and Explorer program spacecraft, reenters Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.

Huntsville is home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and has strong community ties to the space program.

* " Colossus ", a computer program developed for NASA's Project Apollo

The United States tested twenty different sizes and designs during Project Rover and NASA's NERVA program from 1959 through 1972 at the Nevada Test Site, designated Kiwi, Phoebus, NRX / EST, NRX / XE, Pewee, Pewee 2 and the Nuclear Furnace, with progressively higher power densities culminating in the Pewee ( 1970 ) and Pewee 2.

The Viking program grew from NASA's earlier, and more ambitious, Voyager Mars program, which was not related to the successful Voyager deep space probes of the late 1970s.

The program formally commenced in 1972, although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, and was the sole focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s.

NASA's transition plan has the program operating through 2010 with a transition and retirement phase lasting through 2015.