Why We Need NASA
Images from the Past
A Gallery of Photos that illustrates a brief history of NASA.
The Naval Research Laboratory's Project Vanguard was chosen on 9 September 1955 to support the IGY effort, largely because it did not interfere with high-priority ballistic missile development programs. It used the non-military Viking rocket as its basis while an Army proposal to use the Redstone ballistic missile as the launch vehicle waited in the wings. Project Vanguard enjoyed exceptional publicity throughout the second half of 1955, and all of 1956.
October 5th, 1957, a day that will live in infamy in the minds of many Americans. Sputnik 1, translated as "Fellow Traveler" to english, was mankind's first success at a higher atmospheric satellite. The gap of knowledge associated with this event was just the catalyst America needed to catapult us into an age of technological advancement.
Pioneer 10 was launched toward Jupiter in 1972. This spacecraft was the first one to fly to Jupiter, Saturn, the Milky Way Galaxy and stars. After Pioneer 10 emerged through the asteroid belt, Pioneer 11 was launched on a similar trajectory on April 5, 1973, like Pioneer 10, on top of an Atlas/Centaur/TE364-4 launch vehicle.
The Naval Research Laboratory's Project Vanguard was chosen on 9 September 1955 to support the IGY effort, largely because it did not interfere with high-priority ballistic missile development programs. It used the non-military Viking rocket as its basis while an Army proposal to use the Redstone ballistic missile as the launch vehicle waited in the wings. Project Vanguard enjoyed exceptional publicity throughout the second half of 1955, and all of 1956.