NASA
The civilian space agency of the United States government, responsible for human spaceflight, space science and aeronautics research; it began operations on 1 October 1958.
Industry: Space exploration and aeronautics research | Location: Washington, D.C., United States | Founded: 1958
About NASA
NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is the civilian space agency of the United States government. Its mission statement is to explore the unknown in air and space, innovate for the benefit of humanity and inspire the world through discovery. NASA lists 20 centers and facilities.
According to Wikipedia, NASA was formed on 29 July 1958 and succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. NASA says it opened for business on 1 October 1958. Its Goddard Space Flight Center dates from May 1959 and Johnson Space Center from November 1961.
Jared Isaacman is the 15th NASA Administrator. Fox News reported that he was sworn in in December 2025. NASA says he previously commanded Inspiration4, the first all-civilian orbital spaceflight. Matt Anderson is Deputy Administrator, after a 24-year Air Force career that ended in 2021, and Amit Kshatriya is Associate Administrator, the agency's top career civil servant.
Artemis II, the first crewed flight of NASA's Artemis program, launched from Kennedy Space Center on 1 April 2026 on a Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion capsule. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency flew about ten days around the Moon, reaching about 252,000 miles from Earth. Fox News reported in April 2026 that Artemis III is scheduled for mid-2027 to test docking, ahead of a planned lunar landing in 2028.
NASA's work with the Middle East includes the United Arab Emirates, one of the eight original signatories of the Artemis Accords. In January 2024 NASA and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre announced that the UAE would provide a crew and science airlock for the Lunar Gateway, with delivery listed by the UAE government for 2030. Sultan AlNeyadi spent six months on the International Space Station in 2023 on NASA's Crew-6 mission.
In October 2026 TechScoop reported that BioGravity-1, a Saudi Space Agency mission with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, launched on SpaceX CRS-35 to the station with NASA support. It was described as the first flight to send biological samples from the Middle East into space.