At the time of Kennedy's proposal, only one American had flown in space — less than a month earlier — and NASA had not yet sent an astronaut into orbit.

Catherine Grace " Cady " Coleman ( born December 14, 1960 ) is an American chemist, a former United States Air Force officer, and a current NASA astronaut.

She is also part of the band Bandella, which also includes fellow NASA astronaut Steven Robinson, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, and Micki Pettit ( astronaut Don Pettit's wife ).

* 1932 – Joseph P. Kerwin, NASA astronaut

* 1960 – Richard Mastracchio, NASA astronaut

* In Apogee of Fear, filmed in October 2008 and billed as " the first science-fiction movie made in space ", NASA astronaut Michael Fincke refers to the need to " fashion weapons out of a rudimentary lathe.

Harrison Hagan " Jack " Schmitt ( born July 3, 1935 ) is an American geologist, a retired NASA astronaut, university professor, and a former U. S. senator from New Mexico.

* 1941 – Frederick D. Gregory, NASA astronaut

* 1952 – L. Blaine Hammond, NASA astronaut

* 1955 – Jerry M. Linenger, NASA astronaut

The first flight of Columbia ( STS-1 ) was commanded by John Young, a Gemini and Apollo veteran who was the ninth person to walk on the Moon in 1972, and piloted by Robert Crippen, a rookie astronaut originally selected to fly on the military's Manned Orbital Laboratory ( MOL ) spacecraft, but transferred to NASA after its cancellation, and served as a support crew member for the Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz missions.

Tamara Elizabeth " Tammy " Jernigan, Ph. D. ( born May 7, 1959, in Chattanooga, Tennessee ) is an American scientist and former NASA astronaut and a veteran of five shuttle missions.

This mission made him the first NASA astronaut to fly into space twice.

NASA insisted Grissom got authorization to use the spacesuit for a show and tell at his son's school and never returned it but some Grissom family members claimed the astronaut rescued the spacesuit from a scrap heap.

Edward Higgins White, II ( Lt Col, USAF ) ( November 14, 1930 – January 27, 1967 ) was an engineer, United States Air Force officer and NASA astronaut.

Roger Bruce Chaffee ( February 15, 1935 – January 27, 1967 ), Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy, was a Naval Aviator, aeronautical engineer and a NASA astronaut in the Apollo program.

It was while he was on that hunting trip that NASA called him to offer him an astronaut slot.

In July 1962 Glenn testified before the House Space Committee in favor of excluding women from the NASA astronaut program.

The impact of the testimony of so prestigious a hero is debatable, but no female astronaut flew on a NASA mission until Sally Ride in 1983, and none piloted a mission until Eileen Collins in 1995, more than 30 years after the hearings.

NASA psychologists determined during Glenn's training that he was the astronaut best suited for public life.

* Clifton Williams ( 1932 – 1967 ), NASA astronaut and USMC Major

Manley Lanier " Sonny " Carter, Jr. ( August 15, 1947 – April 5, 1991 ) was an American physician, professional soccer player, United States Navy officer, and NASA astronaut who flew on STS-33.

Selected by NASA in May 1984, Dr. Carter became an astronaut in June 1985, qualified for assignment as a mission specialist on future Space Shuttle flight crews.

* Kevin A. Ford, astronaut, piloted NASA space shuttle mission to International Space Station in 2009

Kevin Chilton was inducted into the NASA Astronaut Hall of Fame on May 5th, 2012 in a ceremony that took place the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

* NASA biography of Kevin P. Chilton

Janitor Joe is a DOS game by Kevin Bales in which the player must gather keys and escape from a NASA station.

The term " sensor web " was first used by Kevin Delin of NASA in 1997,

* Dr. Kevin O. Pope, former NASA archaeologist and founder of Geo Eco Arch Research

* 1962 – The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA.

* 1996 – NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.

The Apollo program was the third human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ), the United States ' civilian space agency.

The program was named after the Greek god of light, music, and the sun by NASA manager Abe Silverstein, who later said that " I was naming the spacecraft like I'd name my baby.

" While NASA went ahead with planning for Apollo, funding for the program was far from certain given Eisenhower's ambivalent attitude to manned spaceflight.

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.

On April 20, Kennedy sent a memo to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, asking Johnson to look into the status of America's space program, and into programs that could offer NASA the opportunity to catch up.

Even some NASA employees doubted whether Kennedy's ambitious goal could be met.

It was also clear NASA would soon outgrow its practice of controlling missions from its Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch facilities in Florida, so a new Mission Control Center would be included in the MSC.

Mueller accepted, on the condition that he have a say in NASA reorganization necessary to effectively administer Apollo.

Phillips ' superior officer Bernard Schriever agreed to loan Phillips to NASA, along with a staff of officers under him, on the condition that Phillips be made Apollo Program Director.

* 1993 – NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.

* 1974 – Western Union ( in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft ) launches the United States ' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1.

Tidbinbilla is a locality to the south-west of Canberra that features the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, operated by the United States ' National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) as part of its Deep Space Network.

One of nineteen astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966, Charles Duke had never flown in space before Apollo 16.

Overlaying the shield is a gold NASA vector, orbiting the Moon.

NASA later confirmed the object to be a piece of the first stage of the Saturn V rocket that launched Apollo 16 into space.

* ON THE MOON WITH APOLLO 16 A guidebook to the Descartes Region by Gene Simmons, NASA, 1972.

* Apollo by the numbers: A Statistical Reference by Richard W. Orloff ( NASA )

* 2002 – The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.

Fred Espanak of NASA lists 50 phases of the moon within year 0, showing that it is a full year, not an instant in time.

NASA plans to use it in the manned Mars mission.